


Faded Colour Isn't Completely Lost

by Crimsonfang33



Series: Colours [1]
Category: D.Gray-man, Naruto
Genre: Because Clans needed more Backstory, Bloodlines effect you both mentally AND physically, Child Yuu is so confused, Cross Marian Swears, Cross Marian is a Softie, Cross Marian is actually NOT an Asshole, Fluff and Angst, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Genderfluid Uzumaki Naruto, It's Mature to be safe, Masks, No-one likes them, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reincarnation, SECRETLY, The Black Order is a second hand Root, The Black Order is full of arseholes, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Uchiha Sasuke Needs a Hug, Uchiha Sasuke Swears, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug, Uzumaki red is an universally acknowledged colour, co-dependency issues, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:09:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21537232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crimsonfang33/pseuds/Crimsonfang33
Summary: Allen remembered the cold biting into his skin, the snow falling as he stared at the cold stone that marked Mana's grave with an eye blinded with blood from a cursed wound.He remembered falling asleep, hoping to never wake up.He didn't or, well, he didn't wake up the same as he was when he fell asleep...(Or, Naruto would really have appreciated it if the Old Man Sage told him that his soul might reincarnate once again when he gave him and Sasuke those weird Sage powers because then he could have been mentally prepared for all of this)
Relationships: Cross Marian & Allen Walker, Kanda Yuu & Froi Tiedoll, Kanda Yuu/Allen Walker, Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Colours [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552165
Comments: 21
Kudos: 347





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Allen fell asleep.
> 
> Someone else woke up...

The first time Red could truly remember, could truly see, if only for a moment, was when a priest called him a demon. The name rung in his head, like ominous bells echoing in his head, and Red gasped. 

He clenched his head, curling in on himself, muffing his cries instinctively. His head, it hurt, like tiny needles were sinking into it and suddenly he felt too hot. There was something-!

...Red, slitted eyes?

Wait, no-

Water -no holy water, that’s what they called it- was poured over him but Red didn’t feel it over the blood boiling inside him. At least it felt like his blood was boiling. Where was he…? This, his body didn’t feel right...

When he woke up next, he felt different, there was something at the edge of his mind. A voice, maybe? A growl? Or perhaps something more (less?) than that? He didn’t know. He didn’t really care either. Red was freezing his arse off in the deserted alleyway. Honestly, they call themselves priests and they threw him in an alley in the height of winter. 

~~~~

Mana was dead, then he was not and his eye hurt, his heart hurt, his arm hurt. Everything hurt. Mana was _dead_.

Red - no Allen (that didn’t sound right either, who was he?) now - killed him. This was all his fault. Everything was his fault. If only he wasn’t a demon...

His head felt like it was melting. 

Snow was falling, cold soaked through his clothes, his hair was bone white. 

Allen closed his eyes and let his body fall into the cold snow. He didn’t know whether he’d wake up again. It was cold. Did it matter? 

Snow was falling and there… was red hair? 

~~~~

When he next opened his eyes, he was no longer Allen or Red. 

He was Naruto. He was confused though. His hair wasn’t sunshine yellow nor was his eyes sky blue. He wasn’t tanned either but pale. He was colourless. Naruto didn’t like it. He liked his colour. People never looked closely at him because he was too bright. No one except-

No one. 

There was a growl in his mind. A rough sounding almost purr that was half exhausted. It offered comfort all the same. Naruto basked in it before a throat was cleared. Naruto tried not to flinch. 

He did anyway. 

Red hair. 

Uzumaki hair. 

It was all he really saw when he looked for the man that generated that sound. He yearned then locked that feeling away behind a bland, polite smile. The man scowled at it like he was personally offended. How strange, Naruto thought. Most people here liked polite smiles, grins on dirty orphans (no, he isn’t anymore, but he is because Mana died-) like him wasn’t done. People scowled at him like he was wrong in the head, which-

Well…

Naruto was a ninja - a killer - at twelve, maybe that did make him wrong in the head in this age (world?). Something to think on. 

The man spoke in a gruff voice, “What’s your name, brat?” 

Naruto blinked slowly and mulled his answer over in his head. What was his name? Allen. Red. Naruto. They are all his names.

Naruto is Japanese from what he gathered when asking Fa- Mana about different countries and since he was obviously British that was out. 

Red wasn’t a true name. Well, it was, but not in ‘polite’ society so…

“Allen. Allen… Walker. And you, sir?”

Another mask, masks were so easy to put on. Play the polite orphan instead of the fool, maybe he’ll get some food. He is hungry. No one could see through them but- No one could see through them.

“Marian Cross, but you are going to call me, ‘Master’.”

(“Here, gaki, have an ice pop and calm down.”

“Eh, but Ero-sennin, I still have some training to do!”

“It’s fine.”

“But-”

“I said it’s fine! Listen to your Master, gaki!”)

His heart skipped a beat, Naruto swallowed around the glass in his throat, “Master?” he echoed, trying to keep his tone light.

The man - Marian Cross - huffed, “I need an apprentice and seen as you looked pathetic dying in the snow in front of a gravestone, I figured you would do.”

Naruto stared at him with silver eyes almost wanting to call him out on his bullshit because that was just Suspicious, who picked up a kid for something like that (Naruto wasn’t getting any, “I felt sorry for you” vibes from the man) but- “Okay.” 

Red, Allen and Naruto all had one thing in common. They walked forward. They survived. And if calling this man his Master, allowed him to survive then he’d sound those words through the glass that cut into his mouth and tongue and say them because crying never got you anywhere.

Words meant nothing if there was no feeling put into them, Naruto reassured himself, tilting his lips up into another polite smile and watching as the man’s eyebrow twitched.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeing as my first chapter was more of a prologue than an actual chapter, I decided to upload another one.

**Chapter Two**

The brat he had picked up was fucked up. There was no other way Marian could put it, not that he would. He was expecting a lot of things from the kid, being the host of the fourteenth and well, being a kid. Crying was one of them or at least questions. 

Instead what he got was dry eyes and a polite smile that so sickeningly fake the kid might as well not bothered because it was creepy. Marian didn’t want to be creeped out by a kid! His fucking job was hunting Akuma! Okay, sure, he didn’t do it too often, preferring to find a good woman and some good booze to spend the night with but the point still stood. 

At first, when on the first day the kid just accepted what he said (he thought street kids were supposed to be mistrustful), he thought it might be the shock talking. His adopted dad died then came back to life, cursed his eye and forced the kid to kill him, Marian could understand a little shock but. 

But the kid wasn’t doing anything! Even after three months! He didn’t get angry when he went out to the brothel or dumb his debt on him nor did he ask for food or, or anything! In fact the only thing he did ask about his golem, Timcanpy, who promptly attached himself to the brat, nesting in his hair most of the time. Most of the time, Allen spent his time recovering from his encounter with the Earl and getting used to being able to move his left arm.

It was frustrating. This was why he didn’t have kids! How tiedoll actively did it was beyond him. 

Artists, they're all insane fuckers.

So that was why he was wasting a perfectly good day following the kid when he could be doing better things. Like drinking. The brat was walking to the edge of town, into the forest. Like an idiot. The kid was skinny with barely any muscle on him. He’d probably get eaten by a wolf or something because he had lost his way. A regular occurance. The brat didn’t even bring Timcanpy along, how was he supposed to find his way back?

Still it seemed the brat was looking for something because he was looking around with an intent look on his face. Oh, wait, he stopped. Marian crouched down on a branch as Allen _grinned_. Like an actual grin, what the fuck? Huh, he didn’t know his apprentice was capable of that sort of emotion. Marian ignore the thing that felt like relief in his chest. No point getting attached to the boy that would one day be Nea. 

“Kurama, you’re late, you big fluff ball!” Allen shout, sounding happy and excited to see the - fox? Yes, his idiot apprentice was talking to a _fox_. Marian resisted the urge to sigh, because really? At least the idiot wasn’t wearing that god awful mask again.

The fox, that was as small as a cub but didn’t have a cub’s proportions and so should not be called big, growled back. Which was what a fox would do in any normal situation wherein a human started talking to it except- 

“Don’t call me that, brat! I am not fluffy!”

Marian snapped the twig he was holding on to for extra balance in his shock but quickly got ahold of himself and jumped down in front of his idiot apprentice who had probably attracted the attention of an Akuma disguised as a fox, though why that was Marian didn’t know and aimed Judgement at it. He was so holding this over that idiot’s head once he had killed this thing. 

“Master?!” Allen shouted, surprised as the fox growled at him, baring razor sharp teeth and now that he was closer it’s eyes weren’t normal and were blood red and slitted.

“I’ve told you about Akuma, idiot apprentice, why would you think a talking fox wasn’t one?”

“Well, my eye hasn’t activated and Kurama is definitely not an Akuma!” Allen retorted, anger and heat in his words for the first time since Marian had taken him in. He darted under his arm and place himself in front of the fox. Marian would sigh if he wasn’t aware of just how dangerous the situation was. Allen was right, his eye wasn’t activating, but that could mean that the fox was a disguised Noah which was even worse-

“Get out of my way, brat! I’m not so tired that a need a human to defend me. That toy won’t be able to kill me and you know that!” The fox had sat down as Allen sighed, looked up at the sky (which was something he should be doing and not the brat), and stepped to the side, easily able to get in front of whatever bullet he’d shoot. 

Brats. Again, why did Tiedoll put up with them or was it just his apprentice that was like this?

Marian sighed but slowly lowered Judgement, he always had his magic that he hadn’t told the brat about yet if things did go weird, er, more weird. The brat’s smile become a bit more real at the gesture. He ignored it, he didn’t care. It was still polite and so still fucking irriating. 

“Idiot apprentice, explain.”

His smile became a little more sheepish, “Well, I don’t really know how. Kurama’s kurama. He’s always been able to talk.”

“How long has he been around?”

“He is right here, brats!”

“I’m not a brat, fox!” 

“I’m older than your human brain can possibly imagine! Everyone is a brat to me!”

Allen snorted under his breath, through both could hear him, “Heh, old man.” The fox growled and flung himself at the brat, Marian tensed but soon realised that the fox wasn’t really hurting the idiot.

Marian decided that this just wasn’t his day and he needed to get drunk before he dealt with any of this.

~~~~

Naru curled into a ball, Kurama was usually a pleasant heat, warming her back.

Usually. 

Today (or was in now tomorrow?), it felt stiflingly. An irritating itch that she couldn’t get rid off. She shuffled, moving away from the furball and then returned back to her fetal position (Naru remembered a time where she was able to hug someone in her sle-). She felt cold, and alone but Naruto didn’t want to return to Kurama. 

Her chakra was restless, moving (searching) without rest. She hoped it calmed soon, she could hardly sleep as it was. Naru tentatively reached out with her senses, hoping that maybe her chakra had reacted subconsciously to something, but it was pointless.

As was usual, she was the only bonfire (not counting Kurama who was clearly linked to her own) among countless little embers that only just had enough oxygen to continue existing.

(Naru remembered a time when, even though her reserves where massive compared to most, she was still surrounded with various sizes of different bonfires, all of whom she recognised on some level. All of whom she knew had her back and she theirs.

Naru remembered the crackering white lightning and sable earth lined with streams. She remembered the lightning edged with fire-

She remembered a lot of things.

She didn’t like being able to remember yet not being able to feel)

Naru sighed to herself, the smallest puff of air escaping her, and shook herself from the thoughts that always ended up in a cycle before she forced herself back into a restless slumber.

~~~~

It took awhile but eventually Marian got used to the talking fox. Not shooting the thing happened to warm him to Allen because he finally (finally) stopped with the fake polite smile unless he was with someone else. Which was okay because other people were apparently blind and thought the smile was not only real but _cute_. He worried about the humanity he was risking his life for. 

And Allen was risking his life for, or would be. 

Because the boy decided he wanted to find the Earl and kill him. Which wasn’t unexpected, the fat bastard did kill the brat’s father. Or, at least turn him into an Akuma, but details. Anyway, the kid wanted to become an Exorcist. Which, wasn’t great. The Church were full of arseholes and Allen was the host of the Fourteenth (not that the kid knew that) and would probably try and kill him. 

Not that he cared.

But he had a plan involving Nea and he needed Allen for that.

He didn’t care. 

Why would he care about the idiot that paid off his debts and then ate so much he needed to pay the same amount back? He was an idiot who couldn’t see north on a compass with a grin that sometimes looked a little too feral but bright all the sam- 

No.

He didn’t care about the brat.

Idiot apprentice.

~~~~

“Your hair is red.” Naruto blurted out, not really meaning to. Kurama snorted where he was lying in front of the fire, apparently way too amused by him, the jerk. Timcanpy was being as lazy as he normally was and flew over to Kurama to share the heat. Well, until Kurama got bored of the golem’s presence and batted him away like a disgruntled cat. The furball was making the most of the fire as it was rare Cross would pay extra for one when he’d spend most of the night in a brothel.

It wasn’t his fault! Naruto tried to ignore the Uzumaki red but it was difficult. He had thought that perhaps red wasn’t that an unusual colour in this world, after all he had Uzumaki red hair before shock turned it white. Though that was Kurama being a softie and changing his DNA to an Uzumaki when he was born with him (inside him?). Anyway, he looked around for the same hair colour but he couldn’t find anything. In fact, most people pointed out how unusual his master’s hair colour was.

Naruto resolutely ignored that his Uzumaki senses were screaming out how much like family Cross felt like. Stupid Uzumaki senses. It was bad enough that he always felt a certain kind of yearning when he was near the sea.

Marian Cross paused from reading his newspaper and looked at him for a long moment, as if deciding whether that required an answer or if it had some deeper meaning. To be fair, most of his random statements had a deeper meaning (past life and all) but he doubted Cross could understand said meanings even if he was somewhat aware that they were there. He sighed, taking a drag from his cigarette, “Yes, it is.” He was still staring at him, as if waiting for an explanation of why he deemed it so important to bring up.

Naruto stared at the hair, unaware of the wistful, sad expression he was wearing, “It’s a nice colour.” It really was. This man wore the spikiness of his Tou-chan’s hair with his Kaa-chan hair colour and all the irritating habits of his Ero-sannin and Baa-chan. Sometimes looking at him hurt, tore open his heart and made him see people that weren’t there. 

(But desperately, _desperately_ hoped were-)

Silence, then, “Idiot apprentice, don’t point out the obvious.” Cross reached out and ruffled his hair in an almost fond way. 

Naruto scowled up at him from his bone white fringe, batting away his hand, “Don’t do that!” Naruto tried not to see the outline of Ero-sannin’s mischievous grin.

~~~~

Naruto laughed as he jumped from wall to wall, only using the bare minimum amount of chakra to find his footing as he jumped again. Cross swore a long line of curses and fired Judgement after him to help improve his reflexes. 

Perhaps he should think of this as a harsh training method, in this world (no one uses chakra, does that mean it’s another world? Please, please don’t be! He wanted to see his friends once again when he died. He wanted to see him-) it certainly would be but he remembered children no older than twelve and most of the time younger becoming killers for their village. He remembered going to war, ripping out Madara’s throat out with his teeth because his arms no longer worked. He remembered two white-haired teachers’ training. 

He remembered dying, smiling next to soul-brother who smiled back with an undeniable fond look on his face.

A bullet clipped his cheek, master laughed, “Better run faster, idiot apprentice!”

Naruto scowled in mock offence before picking up his speed, twirling over the head of his maybe master and landing on the rooftop before bounding off again, “If I’m so slow, hurry up and catch me!” 

Kurama sighed at the two idiots he now lived with.

~~~~

Cross sighed as he listened to muffled whimpers, twirling his glass of wine around in his hand but not bothering to drink out of it. 

He wasn’t in the mood for it anymore. 

Marian wondered who the kid cried out for, names half caught in his throat. Once, he tried to comfort the kid from one of his nightmares. Allen wouldn’t look him in the eye for a week afterwards. Eventually, he found out that Allen preferred to ignore the very existence of the dreams and so long as he didn’t directly refer to them, he’d accept some comfort. 

Even if that comfort was letting the kid have a lay in or go a little easy on him during training. Anything more than that and he would clam up. 

He waited until the kid’s voice died down before entering the room. Allen was asleep with tear stained cheeks but Kurama seemed intent on watching his every move. That fox was just creepy sometimes. He blistled the closer he got to his apprentice but when he did nothing more than pulling Allen’s covers back up, he settled back down.

Marian sighed as he walked back out of the room. Grey hairs, he really was going to get grey hairs because of this fucking kid.

~~~~

Marian sighed, staring at his apprentice who was staring blankly at the clean piece of paper in front of him, “Are you going to write anything on that or are you trying to burn the words on it with your mind?” he asked with a puff of smoke.

Allen blinked slowly and raised his head, “...Sorry, what?”

With another sigh, he put out his cigarette and looked seriously at him, “Alright, what’s wrong?”

“Huh? Wrong?” 

“We both know you hate learning to write but you at least put some effort into it for about an hour before you zone out but today, idiot apprentice, you haven’t written a thing.” and it’s been an hour, he added silently.

Allen fidgeted in his seat, “I’m a girl today.”

Marian stared for a moment, blinked, and said, “What?” because wasn’t it too early for this kind of talk. He (she?) was thirteen. That was too young, right? He was in no way qualified to deal with this. Oh god, what would tiedoll do in this situation? He really needed to meet up with the man and interrogate him about this sort of stuff. Actually, no. Marian could imagine the sappy, proud grin he’d give him. He didn’t want to deal with that. Plus, the order would find out about him (her?) and Marian wasn’t ready for that either.

Kurama growled at him as Allen strunk in on himself (herself?). Even Timcanpy bared his teeth. Ah, right, he might have been a little too blunt there, “I mean, what do you mean, ‘today’?” He had heard some girls saying they were guys or the other way round but it wasn’t really advertised. Plus, he’d only really heard about it in the red light district. For what he could infer, it just wasn’t talked about or acknowledged in ‘polite’ society.

People were arseholes generally and people encounting something different were even more of an arsehole than what was normal. 

Allen looked, well, shy, which wasn’t a look he had seen on the kid. Marian didn’t think he liked it. Actual Allen was happy, he (she?) liked to grin and laugh even if his (her?) eyes were edged with sadness that he (she?) tried to ignore. Mask Allen was polite but still happy, if in a quieter way. Both had this confidence you mostly saw in adults. A confidence that came from knowing your place in the world. Marian thought it came from his (her?) time on the streets.

Marian sometimes wondered what he’d (she’d?) look like once he (she?) knew about the fourteenth, about Nea. He tried not to think about it, if only because of the guilt twisting into his heart.

It was too early to think about that yet.

“Sometimes I’m a girl and sometimes I’m a boy. Today, I’m a girl.” it was spoken quietly, unsure of how he’d react. 

Because of that, Marian made sure his voice was completely neutral if curious, “Does it have a pattern to it?” a shaken head, “Do you prefer to be called something different when you’re a girl?” 

Big silver eyes looked up at him, searching, as Kurama huffed and curled back up into his ball, Timcanpy resting back on her head, “Ellen.”

Marian nodded, “Well, Ellen,” using her name to show he accepted it as it was, “Tell me which you are in the morning so I don’t use the wrong pronoun.”

Ellen grinned, happiness that for once wasn’t edged with sadness in her eyes, “Okay.” 

Marian shifted, suddenly uncomfortable, jesus christ, couldn’t the kid tone the sunshine and sparkles down? “Right, are you going to do any work today, idiot apprentice, or not?”

Fucking kids. 

Why does Tiedoll put himself through it?

~~~~

Akuma were sad, pitiful beings, thought Naruto, staring at the ashes of the one he had killed (or freed?). With his cursed eye, he could see their souls, their very being. With his Uzumaki heritage, along with Kurama’s sensing ability, he could sense their near overwhelming pain and anguish. 

Some were still young enough to recognise that they were in pain, most were too old, too used to it that it was simply like breathing to them.

Naruto was no stranger to killing, he never liked it, wished he didn’t live in a world where it wasn’t money or blood that made the world turn but he did. He died in that world. On the cold hard ground with regrets and words never spoken clogging up his throat. Now he lived again and the world, whether it was a different one or not, was ultimately the same. At least, in that way. He hoped he was wrong, hoped for peace the same way Ero-sannin did, but he knew the truth in front of him. Naruto wouldn’t blind himself to it. 

There weren't many things Naruto counted as beautiful in the world when he was as tired and war-weary as he was but the sight of the Akuma’s soul being set free?

Naruto didn’t think it was beautiful, it was tinged with too much regret for it to be that, but it was close. 

So close.


	3. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Naru hummed happily, Kurama lying next to her, warming her back. It had taken a while but she’d finally managed to get her calligraphy back in working order. It had taken a lot of sneaking around, amassing enough money to pay both her eating habits, master’s debts and enough to buy ink and paper in the amounts she needed for practice but she had done it! She had to make the ink herself, of course, filling it with her chakra and the paper required a decent amount of experimenting with to find the best one to work with (rice paper worked best so far) but it had paid off because in her hands was an exploding tag. 

She cackled, just imagining it in action.

~~~~

“...What was that?” he asked, looking at his apprentice, who was smiling that polite, innocent smile of his when he tried to convince people that he was way too innocent and naive to pull off what he had just done. It usually came out when the idiot gambled for a little too long and ended up making his opponents suspicious of cheating. 

It didn’t work on him though.

“Well?” he demanded again, looking over at the burnt, smoking remains of a level one that was slowly turning to ash.

Allen broke out into a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his neck, “I...er… It was an accident?” Marian ignored the warmth in his chest that came with his apprentice doing something that was cute, like lying shittily when they both knew he could lie a whole lot better than that. 

You can call his apprentice bat shit insane all you want but he was a good actor. A good enough one that most people didn’t know he was actually acting. 

Sometimes imagining the chaos his apprentice would bring to the black order brightened up his day.

Marian raised a single, unimpressed eyebrow and Allen sighed, shoulders dropping, “It’s called Sealing. An art my family created.” Sealing, it looked similar to the shitty half-arsed spells that CROW’s can do and the better spells he could do. But there was something more important in that sentence.

“I thought you didn’t know who you family was.” And even if he did, he had been an orphan since he could walk. They wouldn’t have any time to pass on any skills to him, nor would the kid be able to remember them.

“I don’t?” Allen questioned, like he was supposed to know the answer to that. Marian sighed and looked up at the foggy night sky, he wondered why he put up with the brat. Stupid, secretive apprentice that was too fucking cute for his own good. 

“Show me how to make them?” because demanding something his family imparted the brat was like stepping over a minefield. He once insulted his unknown actual birth father when he was cursing him and the kid treated him to the silent treatment for two weeks. Even worse was that he was so frustrated that he couldn’t even find a woman to bed. 

Honestly, you’d think abandoning the kid when he was an even younger kid would inspire a bit of hate or something but apparently not.

Weird, really.

Allen paused from where he was probably about to immediately refuse and looked up to his red hair. One day he’d find out what his problem with red hair was. Slowly, his idiot apprentice nodded, “...Only if you never teach it to anyone else, unless you ask me first.”

Huh? He didn’t actually think the brat would accept, “Alright.”

Allen scowled, “Ya have to promise!” a bit of his street accent slipping through which meant it meant a lot of him, plus the whole promising thing. Brat never promised something unless he knew he could keep it.

Against his will, his lips tilted up into an almost smile, reaching out he ruffled his hair. It was reaching his shoulders now and most of the time Allen tied up into a ponytail, “I promise, brat.”

Stupid brat really did have to stop being so fucking cute. 

~~~~

Marian stared at the symbols that Ellen had wrote (who knew his apprentice could do calligraphy, he certainly didn’t). It took a while before she’d even do this. Apparently he needed to be able to do calligraphy before even attempting Sealing. The Seals reminded him vaguely of the symbols he’d use for sorcery. Though apparently you didn’t need any sort of incantation because that’s stupid, giving away your position without attacking first. Ellen words, not his, which made sense. Sneak attacks were the best type of attack when you couldn’t purify yourself like parasite types could. 

“These are the most basic seals.” explained the kid, “you’ll find them in most Seals, they make for a good, if basic, foundation to most Seals. You’ll find Seals, like most things, require balance. Most seals boost the effect of another, another could diminish it or even negate it which is why placement of Seals is key when making them but I’m getting ahead of myself. 

What I’ll do is make a basic explosive tag, the one you saw me use. It only uses basic Seals so it can be learned by anyone willing to put some effort into it. I’ll get you to make one and I’ll point out why it’s made the way it is.”

Marian mulled this over in his head, feeling the scientist part of himself perk up before narrowing his eyes, “Can be learned by anyone?”

“Ah,” Ellen smiled, “Seals can take decades to master for even those talented with them. And I use the word ‘master’ loosely here because strictly speaking you can’t master them as the art evolves with every new Seal made. I’m going to see how long it takes for you to make a basic explosive tag to gauge if you’ve got any talent for it.”

“And yet, you seem pretty experienced with them, idiot apprentice.” he didn’t think he had ever seen his apprentice talk so enthusiastically about something before.

“Because I’m an - I mean because I’m from the family who made them you could say Seals are in our blood. We see them differently.”

“Differently?”

“Like a story or a language we read fluently.” Ellen’s eyes flickered up to his hair, something soft in them, “Don’t worry, I have a feeling you’d be pretty talented in them.”

He flicked her forehead, causing her to rear back with a scowl, “Who ever said anything about worrying, idiot apprentice?!”

~~~~

Marian Cross sat down across from his apprentice, before she walked over to stand behind him, apparently using Seals required using an energy that was stored within your body. It wasn’t innocence, anyone can learn to use it if you started early enough or had someone to guide you. Because he was already an adult, she was going to guide him which required mediation. 

Honestly, Marian wanted to know why he both believed his student and agreed to a secrecy Seal over it (he tried to think about an organisation having secrecy Seals with easy access or Seals in general and promptly decided that her precautions were probably warranted). Either way, he could just pass it off as sorcery if he was questioned about it, “Close your eyes and tell me when you’re ready.” 

He did as told and closed his eyes, trying to find a calm enough centre. It took awhile, his head was usually always thinking about one thing or another but he finally did it, “Ready.”

Ellen placed both hands on his back but he could feel something, like cool water but less solid. Wind maybe? Not innocence, that always felt more whimsical than this, it was something different. So his apprentice wasn’t spouting nonsense, good to know. 

The wind water-like feeling spread along his back and then sunk into him, that was the easiest way he could explain it. It was slow and unintrusive, almost hesitant, really. It flowed through veins that he didn’t know existed until settling just above his stomach and pulsed.

Something inside of him reacted back. It didn’t feel completely like his apprentice’s. It was less cool, more heated, but it did flow the same way. In fact now it reacted, he could feel it, if distantly. It followed the same veins as Ellen’s but the majority of it stayed above his stomach, settling into a calm beat, like the pulse of a heart.

Ellen’s energy had slowly left his body as his explored his own. It didn’t feel as… active as Ellen’s but that was probably because he had never used it before, “It’s called Chakra. The easiest way to explain it, is that it's your life energy.”

Marian raised an eyebrow, “Life energy, that sounds a bit more dangerous that you said it was going to be, idiot apprentice. And mine feels slightly different than yours.”

“Dangerous?” Ellen tilted her head, thinking, and no doubt hurting herself in the process, “Well, if you use too much of it at once, you can die. But it’s like exercising a muscle. The more you use it, the easier it becomes. I’ll show you some exercises to increase your reserves. And you said it feels different than mine? You can feel that?”

Marian wondered why she was putting such an emphasis on feeling something, her chakra had been inside his body (which felt weird to say about his apprentice, girl at the moment or not), knowing how it felt had to be a given, “Do I have to repeat myself, idiot apprentice?” he grinned darkly and watched as Ellen backtracked, shaking her head.

“No, no! That’s fine. It’s just-” she cut herself, something complicated falling over her face, “Nevermind. Your chakra feels different because yours has a different nature than mine.”

“Nature?”

She nodded, “Yeah, my primary nature is wind with a strong secondary of water which is why it feels like that. You, on the other hand, have a primary of… fire it looks like, and maybe a secondary of water which is going to be difficult to train.”

“And why is that?”

“Ah, wait a minute.” Ellen ran out of the room but soon appeared with a pen and a piece of paper in hand, “Right, so, chakra has many different natures but the most common ones that everyone can access are the five basic natures.” Carefully, she drew fire, wind, lightning, earth and water in a circle, arrows pointing to the next element in a sort of cycle, “These are the five natures. You have an affinity with fire and water which will make them easy to learn but Fire is weak against water so it makes them a little difficult to learn at the same time.”

“I could always master them one at a time.”

“Well, yeah, but whichever one you learn last is going to be weaker because of the neglect. Of course, an affinity is just that and you can learn all of the elements if you really wanted but you wouldn’t be very strong in the ones you don’t have an affinity in…” Ellen trailed off.

“Gaki.” sounded Kurama from where Marian assumed he was sleeping.

“Right. That doesn’t matter at the moment. You don’t have the capacity to even make an ember of fire yet. I just need to show you how to make your chakra from active to useful for Seals as they usually don’t require a certain nature to activate.”

As Marian absorbed the information given to him, he couldn’t help but think if he could use his nature. From what it sounded like, he would be able to use that element and that tag she used worked on the Akuma which meant that chakra itself worked on them. He had always wondered what roasted Earl would smell like.

He also wondered what would happen if chakra became common knowledge, that chakra (of which anyone could use apparently) could kill an Akuma, how the war would progress. Still, given how Ellen swore to become an exorcist, he doubted that knowledge would become accessible. Those arseholes in central would probably hoard it and he had no intention of giving that Lvellie guy any more power than he already had. If there was a poster boy for the prefect arsehole, it’d be that fucker. 

If Marian could help it, he was keeping Ellen out of that guy’s sights for as long as possible.

~~~~

Allen laughed at his master’s face when he showed him the tree walking exercise and straight up fell over when he did the water walking exercise in front of him.

He didn’t understand what was so impressive about water walking that it’d be something only the son of a god could do. The Sage of the Six Paths could do a whole lot more but they didn’t name him a god.

Though to be fair, most did regard him as someone on that level. Religion just wasn’t that big of a thing in a blood-soaked, war torn world. Who would have known?

~~~~

“Hey, master?”

“What?”

“Why do we avoid travelling to Japan?” Cross paused in his goggling of the woman walking past them to look at him. Purposely though, he looked back and carried on walking, as casual as can be. So he was right, they were avoiding Japan, and by that reaction it was for something serious.

“What makes you think we’re avoiding Japan?”

He rewarded that question with the look it deserved but his master was strangely tight lipped about it. Naruto sighed, “We’ve been pretty much everywhere twice or thrice but we’ve only visited Japan once and that was early on in my… apprenticeship.”

A ticked eyebrow, “What’s with the hesitation, brat?!”

“Well, when you want to teach me something and not whore yourself off, let me know!”

“Tch, just because you can’t appreciate beauty!”

“I can appreciate beauty just fine!” He is never telling him he used to be the editor to a highly successful book that was full of porn or that he was able to turn into a solid henge of a woman. He had already made that mistake with Ero-sannin. 

Back then, when chakra and the insanity of ninja was a known thing, when he felt like a girl, he’d just turn into a female version of himself. No one gave it a second look, apart from civilians but they knew to not say anything about it too loudly. As far as other ninja were concerned, life was short and shitty enough as it was, there was no need to make it worse than it already was by dictating someone’s actions. He missed that. Here, people judged you by what you looked like and had no problem telling you that, like your business somehow involved them.

It took an embarrassingly long while for him to realise that solid henges were not normally a thing but he attributed that to Kurama and the fox-like qualities he had inherited from him.

Cross gave Naruto a look of disbelief which caused him to say, “Really! I can!”

“...Sure…”

…

“So…?”

Cross sighed, “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope!” he smiled that polite smile his master hated and watched as his eyebrow twitched. He had never known someone so irritated by the existence of a mask before. Then again, masks were an expected thing once upon a time. Now, people were even more confusing. They were more honest with their facial expressions but lied even more with their words. It was like people didn’t know how to lie properly anymore. If your face didn't match your words then how was anyone supposed to believe you? Anyone he had encountered to have a mask was cracked, more often than not. They weren't able to hide their true intent. Which wasn’t unexpected when faced with an Uzumaki sensor but it’s like they didn’t even put effort into it.

“Last time we went there, what do you see?”

“Hm,” Naruto thought, tilting his head, “There… were quite a lot of Akuma now that I think about it. More than usual.”

“Right,” Master took a drag of his cigarette, sometimes he worried about his health, not being able to coat his lungs with chakra to protect them for the chemicals he was inhaling, maybe he would have to teach him that, “It’s gotten even worse as time goes on. My guess is that it’s probably a base for the Millennium Earl. Or it’s going to be.”

His eyes hardened into something that he only showed when fighting Akuma level two, which he had started to fight recently. Master had said he was ready for the upgrade. They were serious and with full knowledge of what he was killing. His master once commented that they were the eyes of a killer. Naruto couldn’t remember how he replied to that statement only that Cross never commented on it again.

Cross looked down at Naruto when he didn’t give a reply only to see the look in his eye. He sighed and ruffled the kid’s hair, “Don’t worry about that yet, idiot apprentice.”

Naruto blinked, the look gone, and scowled, “Master, I keep telling you not to do that!” he batted away the hands only to hear an amused huff of laughter from above.

Wait, if he couldn’t go to Japan anytime soon… Did that mean he had to cut back on ramen even more than before?

Urg, it was already bad enough that he could have Ichiraku ramen anymore!


	4. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

“Master, I’ll be fine!” Naruto shouted as his master looked through his bag, because he was _apparently_ too stupid to pack for himself. He could pack for months long missions fine by himself, he didn’t need the help!

“Shut up, idiot apprentice!” shouted back his master as he continued looking through his bag. Timcanpy and Kurama looked way too amused to bother helping him out, as per usual, to be honest. 

“For an old drunk, ya taught meh pretty well y'know. Imma not gonna die straight away.” Cross paused and for a moment Naruto thought he could smell salt.

“I’m not old, idiot apprentice!” Wow, not even defending the drunk comment, “Of course I taught you well, it’s me!” He turned around to glare at him, “And you’re not allowed to die! I put way too much effort into you for to do that!” Naruto grinned, master was such a softie underneath all that gruffness. Just like Kurama and- Just like Kurama. Said fox tightened his body around his neck, just enough to not hurt which drew master’s attention,”Remember Kurama, no talking. Timcanpy make sure my apprentice isn’t acting anymore stupid then he already does.”

The golem nodded solemnly, like he had just been given an immense task, “Hey!” the white haired boy shouted, offended.

Master ignored him, turning back to organise his bag, “The Black Order is full of arseholes. I’ve heard that the European Branch isn’t that bad anymore but you can never be sure with central hanging about.”

Naruto smiled and traced the storage seal inked into his right wrist before channelling chakra into it. With a small, soundless puff of smoke, a leather bound book landed in his hand, “Here, master!” 

He threw it careless at the red-head, who caught it without even bothering to turn around, “What’s this?”

“It’s connected to my own book. Basically, we can write to each other in it.” Gotta love Seals, right? “I haven’t finished teaching you about Seals yet and you still come to me with various questions about chakra.” Who knew his master could actually think about something other than alcohol, girls and gambling? Because he did not. Still, it was… nice… being able to teach someone about an aspect of his old world. It loosened something in his chest and he felt that he was closer (maybe?) with his master after having something to share between them.

Cross hummed and turned to the last page, looking at the seals inscribed there. Most of which he hadn’t even touched upon yet, “Bit thin, isn’t it?” Despite saying that, his eyes did not leave the Seals as he tilted the book various ways to get a better look.

“Channel a bit of your chakra into a page and it’ll get rid of the ink.”

He nodded and soon sealed it into the matching storage seal on his own wrist. Naruto warmed at the sight, remembering when he added that and telling Cross only to put things in there that he couldn’t go without and/or something important he didn’t want to lose. His master looked down at him and obviously saw his grin because he frowned defensively and said, “I have to have some way of making sure you are going to pay my debts, brat, don’t get the wrong idea.”

Naruto blanched, “What?! I still have to do that? But I thought-”

He smirked, “You thought what? Just because you’re going into a den of arseholes and other people with sticks shoved high into their arse doesn’t mean you stop being my apprentice.”

“That would almost sound nice if you ignore the context…” he muttered.

Master scowled again, “What was that, idiot apprentice?!”

“Nothing!” Timcanpy flew around his head, somehow emitting amusement, Naruto scowled up at the golden ball, “Master, how am I supposed to get there? Isn’t the European Branch supposed to be in England?”

“Take a boat or something.”

“Yeah, but aren’t you coming?”

Master closed his bag (finally), it somehow being twice as big as before and threw it at him. Naruto caught it and thought about the Seals he’d need to put on it, because while he was very strong (having kept up to his ninja training routine throughout the years) he really didn’t want to be lugging this thing around. Or would having Seals on an easily stolen bag be too big of a risk when going to the Black Order? Master always gave the impression that it was similar to Danzo’s Root organisation and if it was… well, he really didn’t want to take unnecessary risks for a little comfort.

“Didn’t you hear me when I said that the place is full of arseholes? Because I really can’t stress it enough! Why the hell would I put myself through that?! As soon as I get back, they’ll send me off on another near suicide mission! I haven’t got time for that!”

His eyebrow twitched, “What else would you be doing?!”

“Finding a nice, beautiful woman to spend the night with, of course!”

“Have you no shame?”

“What’s shameful about that, brat? It’s perfectly normal!” Naruto sighed, “Anyway, I’ll send a letter to your new superior, what’s he called? Ah, Komui!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Allen got up, picking his bag up and straightened his clothes. If he wanted to get a boat he’d need to check the times but he’s pretty sure one should be coming later on today and he didn't want to be late.

“Oh, and Allen?” Looking over shoulder, he blinked, surprised, it wasn’t often Master called him by his name though he tended to do it more when he was female. Cross was facing away from him, “Be careful.”

Naruto softened his grin and replied, “Of course, Master.”

Like he said, a big softie.

~~~~

Naruto sighed as he looked down, for some reason the Headquarters of the European Branch was on a massive ominous cliff (mountain?). Not that it was that difficult of a climb, what with chakra helping to strengthen his muscles. He’d use it to walk up it but… well, he can’t imagine that going down well once he was spotted. Kurama yawned, showing off large, sharp fangs, as he lounged lazily around his neck, like some sort of extra warm fluffy scarf. Timcanpy was also resting on his head, “I’m not some sort of chair, guys.” he muttered. Neither decided to give any sort of response. Jerks.

He curiously looked around, gazing at the various black golems that flew around in various directions and the massive building in front of him. The size of it vaguely reminded Naruto of the Hokage Tower but the feeling went pretty quickly from the sheer unwelcoming aura emanating from the place. For a place supposed to be for the protection of humanity or something like that, it looked a little too much like some guy’s evil lair.

Looking more and more like Root.

He suddenly had a bad feeling about this whole exorcist idea of his.

A black golem followed him as he walked to the front gate, “Excuse me, I was sent by Exorcist Marian Cross,” it was still strange how European people put their surnames after their given names, he had caught himself multiple times nearly introducing himself the eastern way, “I’d like to discuss some issues with the person in charge, if I may?” he shouted, unsure who he was speaking to but aware he was being watched and therefore heard.

There was a pause and then the black golem following him spoke, “Please take the examination from the gatekeeper.” Hardly a second went by before the face in the gate moved (ha, ninja in Konoha only wished they could do that. Imagine moving Hokage faces) into his personal space.

With a polite smile in place, Naruto spoke, “Nice to meet you, Mister Gatekeeper!” Not much can rattle you when you’ve fought ninja using the  _ moon  _ to project illusions. Or if you’ve got a giant fox demon sealed inside you. Actually, Kurama not really sealed anymore, is he? And should he be calling him a demon when demons in this world are…

Well, they are a little disappointing when compared to Kurama or his siblings.

Said fox purred his agreement soundlessly. 

“Commencing X-ray examination. Determining if subject is Human or Akuma.” The gatekeeper stared at him for a long time before, “Akuma, Akuma! He bears the mark of the Earl!” Naruto blinked as the stone face begin to freak out, mark? Wait, is it talking about his curse? It is, isn’t it, “The pentacle on his forehead is cursed! This boy is a friend to the Earl!” Yep, he is.

...Great…

“W-wait, that-!” Naruto jumped back, avoiding the long haired swordsman-

His breath caught in his throat, that… that chakra…

It can’t be-

He, he’s not-

Kurama growled at the man and the sound echoed in his head, ‘Snap out of it, gaki! Figure it out later!’

“You sure have courage, coming here alone, Akuma.” He was glaring at him, like he was the scum of the earth. He was fond of katanas too and that tone sounded just like him, he was always a gruff, moody bastard...

Naruto bit his lip, drawing blood, to keep himself focused, feeling Kurama’s burning chakra gather at the wound healing it and causing it to hurt more. He mentally thanked Kurama for it, despite knowing the fox would scold him later for using pain as an anchor as he shook his head frantically, “Wait a moment, I think there’s a misunderstanding-!”

He activated his innocence just in time to block his sword’s swipe.

His innocence always felt alive to his senses, almost sentient. Unlike chakra, it didn’t flow through the coils in his body nor was it centred around his hara like chakra was. It mostly kept to his left arm but the innocence’s energy was saturated into every part of his body. Perhaps it was because he was a parasitic type but sometimes he liked to think he felt something from it. Like a feeling. A sentiment, or something like that. Master never said much about it because his parasitic type was Grave of Maria, which was basically using his magic to control Maria’s corpse and therefore the innocence.

Which, not really okay, master, when he thought about it like that.

Kinda creepy...

Naruto hissed through his gritted teeth, feeling his innocence damaged but didn’t dare take his eyes from the swordsman. Bandages, his chest is injured. Doesn’t it hurt-? No. No, it didn’t matter.

It. Was. Not. Him.

“You… what’s with that arm?” the teenager was staring quite intently at him, his dark blue eyes flickering up to Kurama before scowling again. So familiar, that look...

(He yearned, then locked that emotion away, hoping to lose the key.

Not him. Can't be-

Could it?)

“...It’s my anti-Akuma weapon. I’m an exorcist.” Well, probably. He was trained to be one but it wasn’t like his master went through some sort of ceremony and declared him to be one. Most of the time, Master tried to convince him how much of a ‘shitty place to work’ it was. 

“...What?” he narrowed his eyes before turning and glaring death at the gatekeeper, “Gatekeeper!”

Naruto didn’t know stone could sweat but apparently it could, “How can I know? It’s not like I can see inside him!” Didn’t the guy say he was doing an ‘X-ray examination’? Naruto was pretty sure that was like a cheap, crappy version of the byakugan. 

Naruto sighed, way too done with this already, “I’m a human!” because no matter how many people called him a demon, it didn’t make him into one, “Well, I’m a little cursed,” he allowed with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto say the blue-haired teenager flinch quietly, “But still human!”

“Whatever… If I cut you open, we’ll know for sure!” he raised his sword as Naruto took a step back. Kurama raised his head and opened his slitted eyes to growl at him. His innocence was damaged and he didn’t want to attack the one that seemed so similar to- “Activate, anti-Akuma weapon, Mugen!”

“Wait, you should have gotten a letter of recommendation from Master Cross!” he shouted as he deactivated his innocence and used both hands to catch the sword before it sliced open his head.

The boy stared at him surprised, eyes flickering to Kurama again and back up to him, considering, “A letter of recommendation… from the general…?” he seemed distracted. Naruto wondered what could be so surprising about catching his sword.

“Yes,” he smiled his innocent how-could-I-possible-cheat smile, “A letter.” watching as the boy’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance. Huh, another one who didn’t like his mask. Maybe it was an exorcist thing? “Addressed to a person named Komui.”

There was a pause but the teenager didn’t seem about to withdraw so Naruto stayed where he was.

Could it be...?

“Kanda, stop. We'll allow you to pass, Allen Walker.”

Oh, did they find the letter?

The swordsman (Kanda?) grunted but pulled away, he allowed the sword to leave his hands, “What’s going on here, Komui?”

“This boy is general Cross’ student. The golem that’s with him is proof enough. He is on our side.” Naruto sweatdropped, if that was enough proof, why the hell was he attacked? Kurama huffed in annoyance but settled down on his neck again, sensing no more danger and closed his eyes. He was well aware of how his gaze unnerved people, which didn't bother him, but it'd be nice to be able to walk into the place without someone screaming demon or something. Timcanpy was settling back down as well, after he flew off to avoid the fight. The teenager seemed to find glaring at the black golem a good use of his time until a clipboard came down on his head.

Naruto blinked in surprise, and looked at the girl who bore such bright chakra. She was wearing a shorter skirt than what he was used to seeing in this world. Most people covered up their skin, they found it indecent not to apparently. Naruto just thought about their loss of movement and couldn’t help but be pleased at the girl’s choice of clothing. If she’s going to be fighting Akuma she can’t let something like her clothes get in the way.

“Jeez, stop already. If you don’t come inside, I’ll close the gate.” They both stared at her, unsure what to do. Naruto couldn’t help his chakra from poking questioningly at the swordsman, as if asking what to do, if this was normal. He reined it in almost immediately afterwards as the boy stiffened.

Did he feel his chakra…?

But only-

Could he really be-?

“Well?” the girl spoke again, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

Naruto ran in, he had forgotten how scary some girls can be. 

Sakura’s memory ached.


	5. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

Yuu had never forgotten, not really, but he hadn’t remembered either. He remembered being pulled out from the pool he had slept (grown?) in and thinking ‘I shouldn’t be here’. He could taste ashes in his mouth and at the back of his throat. His eyes burned but it wasn’t the right kind of burn. His eyes weren’t red or purple and that was significant. Somehow. He didn’t know why it was, but he knew his eyes should be a different colour and yet they were the colour they should always be. Have always been.

He could hear screeching birds and the sound of dripping water. Where were the birds coming from?

There was a person, a boy, hovering above him. He grinned at him and it  _ hurt  _ to look at. That grin... it belonged to someone, someone important. So important. Who did it belong to again? He could almost taste their name, like it was a name he had said a thousand times and his body knew it without his brain needing to give any input.

He wanted to say their name.

He couldn’t remember.

He remembered something else but it was wrong. Memories that weren’t supposed to be there, but were. He didn’t understand.

Where was he?

He shouldn’t be here.

He should be with them.

Who were they?

~~~~

Alma Karma was a happy boy, Yuu had found. He smiled and laughed and grinned at everything and nothing. He was nostalgic in a way Yuu didn't understand. He tried not to be bothered by it, Alma was happiness and Yuu didn’t feel as numb or lost when he was with him. 

But…

But Alma shouldn’t be like that. He wasn’t who Kanda wanted to see. He wanted…

(It was on the tip of his tongue, bound there…)

He didn’t want this. He didn’t want this life. Scientists smelt like snakes to him, he didn’t trust snakes and he  _ didn’t  _ like them. They looked at him like he was some sort of rare creature, a gift or prize. That was nostalgic too. He didn’t want that too feel nostalgic.

Alma said he was his best friend. That wasn’t right, but it was. He was the only friend he had ever had but… He didn’t understand.

Who was he…?

Lotus flowers bloomed at the corners of his eyes.

~~~~

The lotus flowers always lead back to Alma. 

The lotus flowers sometimes turned into a woman with bright blonde hair. The colour was familiar. It hurt to look at as well. His heart ached for something he couldn’t name or remember.

Alma smelt like lotus flowers too, Yuu felt that was important. Lotus flowers meant something to him. He didn’t know what it meant. Not that was any different from how he normally felt.

Still, Yuu decided he liked the scent of lotus flowers and the faint smell of mud clinging to them. It was a nice scent as far as smells went. Still, he remembered the breeze carrying something he could only describe as sunshine and… a type of food? It hurt to smell that scent but… Yuu felt that it was a good kind of hurt. He locked the scent away in his heart, hoping to never forget it.

Where did he smell that scent anyway?

He couldn’t remember…

~~~~

Zuu Mei Chang said the lotus flowers didn’t mean anything of importance and that he should push it from his mind. They were only illusions. Illusions… That felt familiar too, if only he could understand why.

Yuu never wanted to forget anything ever again.

He didn't tell him about the sunshine he longed for, Yuu didn’t want the sunshine to be labelled as an illusion. It felt like so much more to him. It was something important, something he should have never forgotten.

Still Yuu liked Zuu. He couldn’t say that about most people. The old man was a bit dense, he acted like he was an idiot even though he wasn’t which was annoying but he held power under his skin and there was something regretful in his smile. He reminded him of someone that smelt like dogs.

He couldn’t quite remember but that person was safe to him, he was a… teacher, Yuu thought.

Yes, though Zuu was someone who had given him a life he didn’t want, Yuu liked the man.

~~~~

He was rejected again. 

His hand burned.

His chest burned.

There was a seal on his chest. Yuu hated it. It reminded him of something and he hated that something even more. He wanted to scratch the seal off. He had tried. The scientists found him with his blood soaked fingers and chipped nails. 

They didn’t let him finish the job.

He wondered why. He couldn’t synchronise with the innocence and isn’t that why they wanted him in the first place. If he was useless, why didn’t they throw him away. That was what you did to a tool that was broken.

(He was beyond broken…)

Why did they keep him here? Why did they make him torture himself everyday trying to synchronise with the innocence?

Why?

He didn’t want this life.

~~~~

The lotuses were back again. They were going somewhere. He was still burned from the day’s testing but Yuu got up and followed the lotus that turned into the blonde haired woman. 

That colour…

He wanted to see it again... but on a different face.

...Whose face?

He fell.

~~~~

Alma pulled him back up from the birthing pool, stopped him from drowning with a shaking grin, “What are you doing, Yuu?”

Yuu blinked and couldn’t muster up the energy to be angry at the moment, “There was a woman.” he explained, halfheartedly, not really expecting him to understand. Yuu looked around, searching for that colour. He couldn’t find it.

Alma, apparently, did understand because he also saw a woman too. Yuu felt his heart soar. If Alma saw her perhaps searching for the colour, for the face he wanted to see wasn’t a mere pipe dream. Maybe it was real!

It wasn’t to be.

His woman was not the same as Yuu’s. 

“Hey, Yuu, are you crying?” teased Alma. Yuu’s eyes flashed with fury. Without even thinking about it, his fist met Alma’s grinning face. Alma retaliated, as he always did. Yuu blinked, half dazed from a blow to the stomach.

Why did he think that?

He ached again but… this ache wasn’t too bad, he thought. It was familiar. He… used to do this a lot...

Blood ran from wounds but he felt less… heavy. Less burdened. He looked over to Alma. He looked back and for some reason he couldn’t describe, they laughed.

Alma felt both wrong and right but… that wasn’t bad, he thought, closing his eyes.

~~~~

The lotuses were everywhere. The birds in his head didn’t soothe them. 

He hurt.

Everything hurt.

He didn’t want to see the lotuses anymore.

~~~~

Alma was worried. He wouldn’t explain, not properly. Babbling about not letting him die. Yuu just hurt. Dying wasn’t too bad. He wanted to go back to the sunshine.

There was robed people in front of them, they wore masks. Hatred licked at his chest but he didn’t understand why. Something about those masks… The masked people wanted to capture him, Alma kicked him off a cliff, telling him to run and save himself.

Well, that was one way to go, he thought, closing his eyes and waiting for death to claim him again.

...What about Alma?

His eyes snapped open and he shouted for him. Yuu had already left the sunshine, he didn’t want to leave another one behind.

Yuu hit the canal, screaming.

~~~~

He coughed up water, crawling on his hands and knees, wheezing. There… there were people, two of them, “Please,” he managed to make out, “Please, Alma, you have to help...”

The blonde one seemed to freak out, “Wait a moment, I’ll get you medica-”

“No!” he shouted before heaving from the effort of it, “Alma, need to help…”

The other man, he smelled familiar, he reached out, cradled him almost, and removed the needle that was somehow still in his neck.

Wait, he thought, his vision, dimming, why did he smell familiar...?

~~~~

When he woke up again, Yuu remembered the lotus woman, he remembered who she was to him. He remembered he had died before (but didn’t he already know that?) and that he was younger than he should be and that this body wasn’t his own but it was.

(Didn't he  _ know _ that, though?)

Yuu could hear the hissing of snakes echoing in his ears.

He still couldn’t remember who the sunshine was.

There was something underneath him. A blue light with symbols and words he couldn’t read. The light  _ burned _ . He had died and he was still alive. He didn’t under- no, he did. They, these people put him into another body!

He couldn’t keep the laughter hidden inside him. It burst out, sounding unhinged even to his own ears, from what little he could hear over the hissing of snakes, “Where am I?! Where have you put me?! How long have I been dead?!”

Why couldn’t he remember who the sunshine was? He could remember everything else, couldn’t he? But, no, he couldn’t. He still couldn’t remember. The silver haired dog, sakura blossoms and eyes filled with undying, unconditional love surrounded with stress still lacked names. They lacked a voice or face. 

There was still something he had forgotten-

Electricity surged through his body. He compulsed as he distantly wondered why they weren’t birds accompanying the sound before he knew nothing more.

~~~~

Except he woke up.

He woke up,  _ again _ .

He was so tired. He just wanted to sleep.

Alma, didn’t he say he didn’t want to leave another one behind? He had loved Alma. He needed to make sure she (no, wait, were they a he now?) was alive and okay and breathing. He promised himself that he’d make sure and promises… promises were important…

The innocence pulsed in his hand, warm instead of burning hot for once in his (this?) life. A name resounded in his head, Mugen. That was the - no, his now, once more? - innocence’s name. 

Escaping his confines was a little difficult, his body was worn and felt too big and too small and just not right but Yuu managed. Finding his way back to the lab was easy though. Yuu found the man who had pulled out the needle there. 

He had tried to help him and Alma so Yuu would help him as well, blind as he was now. 

(Something inside of him ached for the man, losing your eyes was unbearable…

How did he know that?

He still had his two eyes)

He busted the man out of his restraints and his blood dripped into the man’s. Yuu blinked, his surprise breaking through his numbness for a moment. Apparently the seal on his chest allowed his blood to heal others.

He still didn’t know what the seal reminded him of. His hate for it bubbled up and turned into disgust, regardless of his understanding.

He took the man with him when he went to find Alma.

~~~~

When Yuu found Alma he realised he had synchronised with his innocence as well. 

Alma was covered in blood.

He had slaughtered everyone else in the lab. Bodies laid surrounding him, blood dripping from the sword-like innocence he held.

Yuu’s head hurt, it pulsed with a beat he couldn’t keep up with. This scene was familiar. Why was it familiar?

“Yuu, you came…” Alma turned to look at him. He was smiling. Blood spattered his face, “Don’t worry, Yuu, I’m going to kill you too.” He had killed everyone…

(“Why did you kill everyone, nii-san?”)

Why was Alma like this? This wasn’t how the one who grinned should be. The one who grinned was bright and warm and sunshine. They were sunshine. They had saved him from the cold burning flames of hatred. The curse of his clan… His family… His brother… His beloved brother who wanted nothing but peace and got only blood.

Sunshine’s name… Their name was on the tip of his tongue…

“I’m going to kill you and then we can die together. Right, Yu?”

(“W-what’s wrong, teme? Y...you look so sad…”

“S-stupid dope! Can’t you see you’re dying?”

Blue eyes sparkled as he grinned, the blood between his teeth somehow not dimming how bright it looked against the smoke and ash filled background, “Haha, dying, huh? Well, I can’t deny that.” Blue eyes looked up to the grey sky, “Still, there isn’t anyone else I’d rather die beside, Sasuke. So, it’s not all bad...”

Sasuke gave a fond smile, a single tear slipped from a black eye, no longer able to hold it’s red colour, his purple one closed to dull the burning ache, “You’re still such an idiot, Naruto… Not that I’d rather die with anyone else either, I suppose.”)

“Naruto,” he whispered, barely audible to his own ears, almost afraid to find out if he could actually sound the syllables out from behind his teeth. “Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, _Itachi_.” Relief instantly hit him. He could remember.

He could remember his name.

He could remember his team that fought for him against the hatred that consumed him. He could remember Kakashi’s regretful closed-eye smile and Sakura’s determined green eyes and Naruto’s never ending light. He could remember his brother’s sacrifice, his forehead pokes, and his ‘No matter what, I will always love you’.

He could remember.

Sasuke looked up to Alma’s serene blood spattered face, “I can’t die.”

His soul-brother. Didn’t the Sage of the Six Paths say that they were brothers who were always reincarnated together? Sasuke was here, now he just needed to wait for Naruto. They had been Kakashi’s student for longer than he had. Maybe they had picked up their sensei’s bad habit and was late?

Yeah, Naruto was just late.

The dope probably got lost.

Naruto had spent so long trying to find him, chasing after him, Sasuke can do the same. 

Alma frowned, his grip on Angel Sword (that was the name of Alma’s innocence, wasn’t it?) tightening, “What?”

His head was  _ still _ aching. His headache was unbelievable. Seriously, he thought the side effects of over using the Sharingan was bad. This was  _ worse _ .

Sasuke got into a stance that his mind was familiar with but his body wasn’t, “I can’t die here.” he said, louder, “I’m sorry, Alma, but I don’t want to die yet. I can’t.”

Alma’s face twisted into rage and denial, “No, no! We are going to die together!”

Sasuke couldn’t really remember who attacked first, maybe they attacked at the same time. His reflexes were faster then Alma’s but his body was weak. Sasuke wished for his Sharingan and his Rinnegan back, despite knowing he could never have them. This body didn’t process the Uchiha bloodline. Probably a good thing if it was in the hands of the Black Order. 

Steel cut into his body, he cut back. Hacking and slashing with the desperation to live, to survive. 

He needed to be there to wait for Naruto.

~~~~

He wondered if this was how Kakashi felt, wondered if this hole in his heart was the same thing that Kakashi lived with when his sword slid smoothly across Alma’s chest, the boy’s body dropping to the cold ground.

Sasuke felt cold, he didn’t want to feel cold anymore.


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post this for Christmas but, well, that didn't go as planned obviously so... Anyway, you guys can have this on Boxing Day instead. 
> 
> One of these days, I'm going to learn to not be so easily distracted... Probably

**Chapter Six**

Froi Tiedoll was a strange man, in that he was strangely honest. Honest people were so hard to find. Even more so when you remember that ninja instincts dictated that you lie before you even  _ think _ about telling the truth. Maybe that was how Naruto drew so many people in? Honesty was such a foreign concept to them all back then that Naruto was like a strange beam of light that you didn't think to avoid because you had no idea what it was before it was too late. Because Naruto had already caught you up in their pace.

(Not that Naruto didn't lie. They were a ninja, born and bred and they had a spy master as a master, though everyone seemed to forget that tad bit, but they were strangely open with their emotions when it mattered. When you  _ needed _ it.)

Honesty was hard to come by in this place as well. The Black Order liked their ‘white’ lies. Lies that they thought no one caught on to. They either thought so highly of themselves that they could no longer see who they were talking too nor their reaction to it, or they actually thought people liked them enough to get away with it. Sasuke, honestly, didn't know which it was, they reminded him of the Konoha council a little too much before he went on his ‘Orochimaru induced power trip’ as Sakura once called it, and they wanted him as a stud horse.

Anyway, the point was that they couldn't lie to a ninja, so Sasuke didn't eat up their bullshit. It was still annoying that he had to stay still throughout it all, like he was a puppet on strings, made to dance to their tune. Sasuke wanted to scoff. He was an Uchiha (blooded or not) and Uchiha don't bow to anyone but those with actual power. 

(Sasuke tried to actively forget about it was more the fact that they were  _ attracted _ to people with power rather than bowing to such things. It was more along the lines of being happy even if they were whipped in their relationship if they could smell the unique scent of unadulterated power in that person's chakra. 

He, also, carefully forgot that Naruto’s chakra held that same scent, because he was  _ not  _ opening that can of worms, okay?

Anyway, that scent was like catnip to cats for them.

Sasuke had heard the  _ rumours _ of why Madara allowed the Uchiha Police Force to be formed on the Second's order before the Uchiha went off the deep end. It explained  _ a lot _ . A lot more than he wanted explained, really.

He also tried not to think about why his mother tended to wield the most authority in his family. There were some things a child never wished to imagine about their parents).

The Black Order, while big and powerful in its own right, did not hold the type of power Sasuke would happily serve. And even if they did, he would not serve them. 

His loyalty was beholden to only one person.

Still, how was it that the Black Order made him feel disgusted when he was part of a ninja society and was Orochimaru’s ‘future body to be’? It was kind of impressive, really.

Sasuke didn’t think he’d find such a man like Tiedoll in the Order but then he was very religious so maybe that was why he was with them. He was more of a teacher than a fighter, he preferred to avoid fighting when possible.

Yes, he was a strange one but Sasuke liked him. He was refreshing in a way. Like a breath of fresh air in an underground sewer. It shouldn’t be there but you can appreciate it all the same. Not that he’d admit to actually liking the man. Tiedoll was ridiculously emotional about that sort of thing.

He had also given Sasuke a last name; Kanda. He liked that as well. Much preferred that over Yuu, in fact. 

That name could stay in the lab with his cold dead friend.

(Why, Alma? Why did it have to end that way?)

~~~~

Sasuke sighed as he rested against the tree, Mugen against his shoulder. Tiedoll had stopped once again, having found something worth painting. Sasuke wasn’t really used to the pace the man was setting. 

Not that he was fast, no, it was the opposite.

Whether he was on a mission or not, if something caught his eye, he’d sit down and draw it. Sasuke was used to missions that, if you stopped, you’d quickly find yourself surrounded and (most likely, if he was anyone else with a little less skill) dead. He was used to going fast. Heck, he was as fast as the Raikage in his prime before. He mourned the fact that it would take a while to get his old strength back. He'd have to go through puberty first, for his body to be physically capable of some things. And, no, he was not looking forward to going through that again.

This pace was taking a lot of his mental energy to keep up with. Sometimes, he felt so restless and on edge, he felt like he needed to do something stupid like jump around. 

Which was the dope’s area, not his.

…

Sasuke still hasn’t found them yet.

It irked.

“What are you looking for, Yu-kun?” Sasuke twitched at Tiedoll’s voice. He usually didn’t speak when he was drawing or painting. Sasuke only really allowed Tiedoll to call him by that name now. He was the one to give him his last name, it was only fair. 

“What am I looking for?” he repeated, had he been that obvious, no, surely not. Regardless of his inexperienced body, he had the mental strength and maturity of his adult body (was he an adult back them though? He died barely nineteen years of age. In this world or era, Sasuke hadn't decided which it was yet, he'd barely be counted as an adult. In his old one though, he was an adult at twelve. He could admit to himself that it made him confused why these people put such a big importance on age, if you were skilled and accepted something, then you should go right ahead and do it). He shouldn’t be that easy to read.

Sasuke didn’t really count his previous life as an exorcist his ‘previous’ life. He could remember it but only in mismatched memories. His life as a ninja was much clearer. Which should tell you something with all the times his brother mind-fucked him (he loved him dearly, but surely, he could have toned it down a couple of times at least) and Orochimaru. 

Because that guy deserved his own category, if nothing else.

The amount of trauma he is still trying to block out because of that mad scientist… The things that tongue could do was not natural even for the ninja world.

Creepy bastard.

“Don’t play dumb, Yu-kun. You are looking for something. I just haven’t discovered what yet.” Tiedoll didn’t turn around from his canvas and Sasuke thanked the man for what little privacy he was given, “If you share, it might help.” Note to self; Tiedoll was surprisingly (or not, considering he was one of five generals) perceptive for a trained civilian. Or trained soldier, considering they were in a war. There wasn’t much difference between the two to the ninja society. He wondered how these Akuma haven’t won the war yet with the half trained exorcists (and of those there were only a handful would make it through their first battle. Innocence didn’t change the fact that some people simply didn’t have the mentality needed to become a soldier and the endless paranoia they needed to have against an enemy that could be sitting right next to them) the Order had at their disposal. 

Sasuke thought about it, six months he had been with this man and it was…  _ nice _ . Tiedoll was only trying to help but it wasn’t something that could be helped. It couldn’t be rushed either. He couldn’t do anything but wait. 

He hadn’t felt this helpless in a long while. 

Sometimes, when his darkness crept out from the cage Sasuke had locked it up in, he found himself wondering if Naruto was even here at all. Maybe the dobe was waiting for him in the Pure Land with his family and their team. He even wondered if he was to die, if he’d even get there in this body from a world not his own.

(Please let him be wrong, he ached to see those he had lost.

This world was different and strange but it might be the same one, right?

Oh, sage, please...) 

He’d look up at the moon and try and see red and rotating pupils where there was nothing to see but white. 

Truthfully, Sasuke didn’t know for sure if Naruto even was here with him but… but his instincts told him he was. Because weren’t they two halves of a coin? What was one without the other? They had to be together. That was just how it was. How it was meant to be.

Sasuke didn’t even know if it was his instincts he was listening too or his own mournful, hopeful heart.

He didn’t care in the end, he’d wait all the same. That was what he had decided.

“Yu-kun?” Tiedoll had turned around to face him. Sasuke hadn’t noticed, too caught up in trying to smell sunshine and power where there was only the damp of last night’s rain.

“Hn,” he closed his eyes and let his head fall back, “I’ll find them eventually. They’re just easily distracted.”

And that was what Sasuke had to believe.

He’d break like fragile glass otherwise.

Tiedoll’s eyes turned thoughtful as he stared at his resting apprentice before he turned back to his painting.

~~~~

His eyebrow twitched, “Stop fussing!”

“Are you sure you’ll be alright, Yu-kun?”

“It’s been a whole year since I’ve been back there, I’ll be fine!” which means he’ll be less likely to stab those in command. Sasuke considered that a big improvement from definitely stabbing those in command. Tiedoll should be more proud than concerned.

Sasuke does wonder why he feels the same amount of hate towards things as when he was an Uchiha. Uchiha tend to feel things more deeply, intimately. This body, or rather this brain or heart, shouldn’t feel hatred this strongly or not to this level. If he didn’t already have knowledge and memories of better times to fall back on, Sasuke would have been consumed by it.

Actually, thinking about that, maybe Tiedoll did have a reason to worry…

Eh, at this point, there’s not much to be done.

~~~~

Remember the whole maybe not stabbing thing?

Sasuke took that all back.

He’d burn their eyeballs in their sockets, put hot coals in then now empty sockets, nail them to a wall and  _ then  _ stab them to death. If he missed fatal points the first few times, well, they’d be too busy screaming to point it out.

A fucking eight year old child. Her chakra felt muted and dulled even to his senses and he was not a sensor in any way. 

Sage, what were the people in the Black Order trying to prove? How little humanity each of them had? Because if so, they were on the right track!

If he could, he’d introduce them of fucking  _ Orochimaru  _ so they could compare notes!

Sure, the ninja world was blood stained and war torn. Sasuke was not denying any of that. It was one of the only things that ninja (even those from other villages like  _ Kiri _ ) was truthful about, how much blood painted their hands red. It was that very thing that drove his brother to the extremes that he did but they, at least, had a  _ choice _ . 

Yes, they were children made to be killers and the propaganda on being a ninja was a little ridiculous for civilians (from what he remembered Sakura telling him about) but even entering as a genin was pretty much taken as a trial period to see if you could handle being a ninja, handle the lifestyle expected of you. If you can't, then you were either put into the genin corps who pretty much did chores, helping out civilians and sending messages between ninja or retired from the force so you could get a job as a normal civilian.

Well, war time was a little different but you still had a choice on whether or not to join up.

(Though, it had to be noted that he was going on Konoha policy here. Sasuke was pretty sure Kiri had a  _ completely  _ different policy, but back then they thought killing off all their bloodlines was a  _ good idea _ , so…

Yes, Sasuke was aware the Mizukage was under a genjutsu. Did he care? Not. At. All.)

Here?

It seemed that kidnapping you from your home and family was a perfectly  _ acceptable  _ thing to do to a six year old kid. Now, Sasuke did not understand most age restrictions this place (era, world, country?) had, but that was because most adults seemed to have the bizarre idea that most kids actively tried to kill themselves if an adult wasn't present. He wholehearted backed the whole, let's not send kids off to war and separate them from their parents thing, ninjas were already messed up in the head. Like seriously. And most of them had some sort of support structure at the beginning. If he could avoid that, he'd try.

The Black Order had serious Root vibes.

As if he needed more reason to hate this fucking order.

Fucking Danzo.

~~~~

The man he saved back in the labs turned out to be a teenager who was just going on to an adult and called Marie Noise. Sasuke blamed his small body, everyone looked older than they should. Most people tended to look bigger than he remembered them to be. It was annoying. He had to adapt quickly now that he was aware of the mistake. Still, he hoped to regain his old height. He remembered being pretty tall. Well, taller than the dope, which was always funny when he ignored  _ why _ the dope was so small to begin with. He liked being able to tower over their shoulder, he could protect them better that way. Like the faithful shadow he was supposed to be.

Marie hadn’t recovered his sight. Sasuke still ached for him. To an Uchiha, eyes were a life line, most would rather die than lose their sight. 

Sasuke had been blind once. His brother’s eyes burned in his sockets, bandages covering them, waiting for them to heal. Even now, he wasn’t sure if the burn was in his head or if it was really there.

Marie was brave. 

Uchiha respected those who managed to fight blind. He wasn’t an Uchiha anymore, but his heart felt like one so he bowed his head slightly in a show of his respect, unaware that Marie could hear the movement.

The teenager was already on the Tiedoll Unit as well. 

He wasn’t Kakashi, Sakura or Naruto but he didn’t have to be. If he was fighting with new comrades, he’d need to learn to accept them (or at least their fighting styles).

Urg, if Naruto could see him now…

(He wished he could see them)

~~~~

“Lenalee, right?” the girl flinched from him and he willed his normally sharp eyes to soften, to seem more gentle to the kid, it was hard. How did the dope do it? They could have pretty sharp eyes when they wanted to, “What are you doing in here?” gesturing to the dojo around them.

She was quiet for a long moment, then, “It’s quiet.” she whispered.

Fucking second hand Root, he swore...

“Hn.” Sasuke cut off his violent thoughts, suddenly aware that there was an unstable kid (though she was technically only a couple of years younger than him at his current age) in the same room and sat lotus style beside her, resting his hands against his knees. Breathing slowly, he calmed his restless chakra. It was always restless nowadays, searching endlessly. The bond where the dope’s chakra should sit was empty. Only his mind knew what their chakra felt like. His body had no clue but it didn’t stop his chakra from aching, from calling out. 

Twenty minutes passed without interruption but he could feel Lenalee shuffling beside him, “What are you doing?” she asked, he could almost feel her eyes peering at him.

“Mediating.”

“What’s that?”

“A way of clearing your thoughts and steadying yourself,” opening an eye, Sasuke looked back at the unsure girl, that had faint stress marks lining her eyes, before closing his eye again, “Would you like me to teach you?”

Lenalee shuffled in her place again, “...Please?”

Sasuke huffed, “Sit like I am first, and close your eyes.”

~~~~

Lotuses. 

He could still see them. 

The Seal on his chest still burned. 

It was killing him. That he knew. He knew the scent and the feeling of death well enough. The Seal ate his life force too quickly for his chakra to support it properly. The CROW idiots either had no idea what they were doing or just didn’t care about the long term. Honestly, he didn’t know which one was more likely. 

He wondered if this was his punishment for all the destruction he caused before. 

Was being unable to find Naruto part of his punishment as well?

~~~~

Lenalee kept turning up at his dojo.

(His, because no one else ever seemed to use it. The exorcists here only trained with their innocence after making sure their body had enough stamina to fight long battles. Sasuke found it foolish but never said anything. If they wished to die because they dropped their innocence and had no way to defend themselves, it was up to them).

At first, it was for lessons on mediation. Sasuke thought it helped her, at least a little. Then it was because Lvellie was in Headquarters and she  _ needed  _ a place to feel at least somewhat safe. He never failed on driving Lenalee back to him. He wondered if he was some sort of comfort to her. He was usually too harsh and sharp with people to be a comfort. 

Only his team came to him for comfort but he was well aware that he was crap at giving it, the dope was usually the one assigned to that role. Or Sakura. Never him or Kakashi unless there was no other choice. Sasuke… couldn't really blame them for that.

Still, Lenalee made him feel… lighter in a way. She was battered and bruised but she still cradled a tiny flicker of hope hidden away in her chest. 

Sasuke liked to watch her mediate, her face smooth of the stress that kept biting at her ankles. He liked being able to put a smile, however small, on her face.

He wondered if this was how his brother felt about him.

~~~~

Sasuke jumped up, sweat dripping from his forehead and he gripped his bedsheets in tight, shaking fists. 

Sage, Sasuke wanted to cry.

He was finally with Naruto and the others. He was able to see them all again. He was fucking happy and when he woke up! He was back in the elemental nations but the air didn’t taste like smoke and ash and the ground wasn’t soaked red with blood. The trees were as big and as towering as he remembered them being. The leaves and branches offering plenty of shadows as what light that was able to reach the forest floor, danced.

He felt fucking happy for a single moment and then his brain had to remind him that he was sleeping…

His throat felt overwhelmingly tight and there was a lump in it that he couldn’t seem to shallow.

~~~~

He had come back from a mission. Lenalee hadn’t greeted him yet. She usually did, even if it took a while for her to muster the strength to walk in her cold, rigid shoes. Marie was still out, he couldn’t ask him what had happened.

Because something had happened.

The finders were avoiding his questioning gaze. They knew something and was not telling him. It was the Head Nurse who finally told him. He had taken to stalking her with his eyes once she was in sight. 

Not that he had intimidated her. That woman was unflappable. He thought it was a medic thing. Sakura was much the same way. Still, she put up enough resistance to show the higher ups and then promptly told him.

Lenalee was ill.

The stress, the terror and fucking  _ Lvellie _ had finally gotten to her. The Head Nurse would not tell him much only that she was being restrained for her own good, less she hurt herself.

The Black Order suddenly felt colder than it ever had before.

~~~~

It was difficult, but he managed to convince the Head Nurse to let him visit her. Sasuke visited her after every mission and just before he went on one. Sometimes he talked, most of the time he just sat still.

He didn’t know whether she could hear him. Most of the time Lenalee stared into the dark corners of her room. Perhaps she could see something he couldn’t or maybe she couldn’t see anything at all.

She hardly moved or she thrashed around madly, hands molded into claws, like a cornered beast. Sasuke’s heart ached but there was nothing he could do.

He held only darkness and there was no light that he could shine to lead the way. He was only one half of a whole.

Incomplete.

~~~~

A year had passed.

Not much changed until there were rumors of a new superior to answer to. Sasuke thought little of it. They were all the same, stuck up, power obsessed idiots who couldn’t see beyond their own nose. Sasuke seriously doubted this one would be any different. 

Except he was. Different, that is.

Because when he returned from a mission and he made his way to Lenalee’s room, there was a man baring Lenalee’s resemblance crying over her. Her brother. Didn’t Lenalee mention she had a brother in whispered tones?

More importantly, though...

Lenalee was awake.

Sasuke didn’t think he’d be able to feel such strong relief. Lenalee was crying happy tears, full of relief and she was  _ awake _ .

With a hidden smile tucked away in the corners of his lips, he turned away and let them have their family reunion. He could see how she was doing later. He nodded to the Head Nurse as he passed.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

Komui, Lenalee’s brother, was an idiot. 

But he was an idiot who reminded Sasuke of Naruto. He seemed to take one look at how the European Branch was run and decided he didn’t like it all that much and if his ‘dear’ Lenalee was staying here, then it should only be the warmest of places. 

He started doing things, like making sure their uniforms were comfortable and suited to their fighting styles. He’d say ‘Welcome back’ once they came back from a mission. It didn’t seem to matter if it was a long or a short one. He'd ask how their missions went and actually seemed invested in their health, even if their innocence was completely fine and so didn't need to ask as it wasn't his job. 

It... It sort of reminded him of Konoha. 

It didn’t take long for the man to be promoted from Section Leader of the Science Division (and wasn’t that weird? Not completely hating a scientist) to Branch Head and Chief Officer. Once there, he abolished the right that the order had of disposing of an Exorcist’s relatives with unholy glee.

Not that he disagreed with that decision, but the amount of cackling he had heard from his office…

Still, Lenalee opened up a little more each day with the support of her brother, so he supposed he could put up with the idiot.

He did have experience with dealing with them, after all.

~~~~

There was a new head cook, Jerry, though that apparently wasn’t his real name. And he wasn’t a he but a she. She had learned to cook from Zuu. Sasuke remembered some of the food that was given to him by the old man and decided this new chef couldn’t be that bad.

He was right. The chef was a decent cook, more than decent really. The soba Jerry made was brilliant. Sasuke had it for nearly every meal after that point, though sometimes he treated himself to a bowl of tomatoes on the side if he was feeling more depressed than usual.

He still ordered a bowl of ramen on October tenth if he wasn’t out on a mission though or a plate of dango on June ninth even though he still hated sweet things.

~~~~

There was a redhead in Komui’s office…

He had Sakura’s green eyes, though one was hidden behind an eyepatch, (he later found out that the eye wasn't even  _ injured _ , so he wondered why he wore it. A fashion statement? Why would you intentionally give yourself a blind spot? Or did he count on enemies seeing it and using that to his advantage?) and Uzumaki red hair. 

Sasuke hated him once he laid eyes on the teenager, what with his fake grin that reminded him of the sunshine. Of the dope's younger years when they weren't sure  _ why _ they were smiling but knew that people were more likely to be lenient to them if they acted like a naive idiot.

(And no, he was never telling Naruto that when he couldn’t remember them, he called them  _ Sunshine _ . Sage, he’d never live it down, Naruto would  _ never  _ know. Never.)

And for Sage’s sake, all he wanted to do was see if Tiedoll was still alive as he had heard he was back in the building, and now he had to deal with this. He looked at Tiedoll and wondered if he could leave before he was noticed but, no. Tiedoll was looking at him with that ridiculously sappy grin in place.

He heard Marie’s huff of quiet laughter which meant his silent sigh wasn’t as silent as he hoped. The guy’s hearing got better every time he saw him. No, he wasn’t proud, “...and this is Kanda!” Sasuke blinked, and looked over at Komui. Oh, they were introducing him to the redhead now.

...Great.

“Yu-kun! How are you?”

His eyebrow twitched, “Fine, Tiedoll.” Huh, the old man next to the redhead was as short as the old Tsuchikage. Most people -or rather adults- that he saw nowadays were taller than the average Japanese, of which ninja took after the most, at least culture and language wise.

“Kanda!” Sasuke looked over to Komui, “This is Lavi, the successor to the bookman clan. He’s an exorcist that will be joining this branch!”

Lavi grinned, giving a peace sign, “Hey Yu-chan, nice to meet you!”

Sasuke instantly scowled, drawing mugen, “Who the hell gave you the right to use my first name, rabbit?!”

He would have cut him down right then, for reminding him about the lab and everything that came with it if it was for Lenalee and her clipboard.

What was with women getting older and than suddenly becoming scary?

The dope was the same way when they were a woman, he remembered. And Sakura was like that. Full time. He blamed that slug princess. Terrifying people, the lot of them.

Actually, now that he’s looking at the rabbit`, there was something familiar in his face that he couldn’t put his finger on just yet. Hmm, something to think about.

~~~~

He searched and searched. 

Where were they?

Why couldn’t he find them?

Hadn’t he suffered enough without his other half beside him yet?

His chest burned.

He was afraid of running out of time.

~~~~

Lavi was irritating. He had a mask glued to his face. It was annoying. Especially when it was obvious that he both wanted to get involved with them and stay away from them at the same time. He was well aware of what was bothering him.

Clan bullshit.

Or rather, what was the equivalent to Clan bullshit in this world. 

Komui said that he was basically the heir to a clan and Sasuke vaguely remembers something about the Bookman clan being the ‘record keepers of the unrecorded history’. It sounded exhausting to Sasuke, but whatever. 

He would just carry on attempting to halfheartedly kill the kid until he learned that Clan bullshit was way too much effort to deal with and he should just do what he wanted to do. Itachi dealt with that crap and it killed him and his best friend (maybe boyfriend? Shishu was definitely his Focus though, Sasuke didn’t think Itachi who had gone to such extremes if he was completely sane. And the death of his Focus would have definitely thrown him off the deep end) eventually, along with the rest of the clan. He tried to deal with that crap before he decided he’d be better off with fucking _Orochimaru_. Not his best decision, he could admit, but there was only so many “oh, look at that girl, Sasuke, doesn’t she look pretty?” he could take. Trauma none withstanding, at least Sasuke didn’t have to deal with a shit load of paperwork and proposals at thirteen that came with being the last of his clan at Orochimaru’s.

In hindsight, maybe he could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he learnt how to use his words instead with the rabbit. 

Eh, that was the dope’s area.

~~~~

There was a whitehaired boy outside, a polite smile on his face as the gatekeeper examined him. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the moving stone, or by the general aura of the Black Order.

Sasuke was feeling worse for wear as it was, having just finished a back to back mission, he didn’t want to deal with anymore crap. He had been using his Seal less and less, hoping to extend his lifespan as much as he could, so his wounds were slower at healing. He wondered if this was how the dope felt when Kurama’s chakra was too low to heal them.

He attacked the ‘confirmed’ Akuma, hoping it was dealt with quickly but the boy drew an anti-Akuma weapon instead. Sasuke did not want to deal with this-!

The whitehaired boy had a fox around his neck, the fox had red, slitted eyes-

It’s chakra-

He wasn’t a sensor, not really, but-

You can't fake that chakra, could you? 

Kurama wouldn’t be with anyone but Naruto but this, this wasn’t Naruto except-

His chakra… it felt like sunshine…

Sage, was he hallucinating again? 

At least, when he hallucinated the other times, he was either on his own or could easily fuck off to be on his own. Or the hallucinations were easy enough to tell apart from reality because while he wasn't as good as his brother when it came to illusions, he was pretty damn good, but- 

Well, this one was either a very, very good fake. Or actually  _ real _ , which-

He had spent  _ years  _ searching for the idiot, would they really just land in his  _ lap _ after all this time? 

(He tried to ignore the voice that said of course they would, it was  _ Naruto _ he was talking about)

He was only vaguely listening to what was happening around him, but once the boy trapped his sword in his hands, it was like he was given the ability to be aware again. He stared at the kid, because, sage, he was small, cataloguing his features. He didn’t have the Sharingan anymore so he had to actively try to remember things in full detail now. 

White hair, it was all one colour, the colour of bones, there was no shades of grey that he could see. The fringe reminded Sasuke of Kakashi with how it fell into his eyes like it did but even his hair wasn’t quite that white, his was more of a silver colour. It was longer than he expected, most European males preferred short hair but he had his tied back into a short ponytail with a red (Uzumaki red?) ribbon. His eyes were silver but there was something familiar in them and even though the skin was even more pale than Sasuke’s, there was something familiar about the shape of his face too.

There was a nasty scar slicing through his left eye. It looked new with how red it was but with the pentacle on his forehead, Sasuke guessed it was cursed. He wondered what the dope had gotten himself (because he was standing like a man today) into now. It must’ve hurt...

Wait-

Was it truly Naruto?

Sasuke didn’t want to believe it if it wasn’t true. He wouldn’t be able to deal with that. Sasuke would break apart like easily shattered glass against a sound ninja. He was running on autopilot until Lenalee got out her clipboard and smacked it across his head.

Allen (wait, his name is Naruto, please let him be right, does he remember, is it truly him…?) looked over to him in a way that was so achingly familiar Sasuke had to focus on not crying because that’d be awkward to explain. It became even harder when Allen (please, please be Naruto) used his  _ fully active _ chakra to ping questioningly against his own. Like he used to. Like they both used to.

Sasuke stiffened and tried to breathe around the lump in his throat.

His sharp eyes followed Nar-Allen as the younger boy ran inside the gate. 

He had to find out.

~~~~

Naruto followed as the girl went straight to business, “I’m Lenalee, the assistant to the supervisor. I’ll be taking you to him.”

Naruto stopped, feeling Kanda’s (is it…?) eyes on him. He was staring at him, like trying to discover something hidden beneath him, “Ah, Kanda was your name, right?” he started, putting out his hand. Kanda stared at that too, chakra emitting how unsure he was. Was it actually him, did he remember? He used his ignored hand to point to himself and his fluffy fox scarf, “I’m Allen and this is Kurama.” Naruto took a deep breath and continued, “Sorry if he’s grumpy with you, he doesn’t like people who look like Uchiha too much.” And he did, Kanda (please be his Sasuke) bore the colouring of an Uchiha still. 

Kanda’s lips twitched upwards, happiness flashed in his eyes almost too quickly for him to see, “Hn, you look like a dope so I don’t really care what your fox thinks.” His chakra curled into his own, tentatively and Naruto’s own pulled it towards him with all his usual affectionate nature that this mask didn’t allow him to show. Naruto had to lock his muscles together to stop himself from launching at Sasuke, because it was him! 

He suddenly felt like he could take on the world!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

“Allen…?” Naruto blinked and belatedly remembered that, yes, that  _ was  _ his name now and reluctantly looked away from Sasuke, because he may be called Kanda now but he was still  _ Sasuke  _ to him, “Are you coming?” 

Naruto looked back but Sasuke was already walking off, probably for the best, if he had stayed any longer, Naruto would have tackled him into a hug or something. The bastard wasn’t big on public shows of affection… “Ah, yes, sorry!” he slipped on his usual polite smile and followed after the girl.

“Still, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kanda that nice to someone he’s just met!” Lenalee spoke, “I swear, I thought I saw him smile. Usually, he scowls at anyone that comes close to him.”

Naruto sweatdropped, it seemed like his personality hasn't changed too much, he didn’t know what else he expected, “...Really?”

Lenalee smiled, a smile full of innocence, “Yep!”

~~~~

Sasuke leaned against the wall, listening as Naruto’s footsteps and chatter slowly faded away. He wanted to run back there already. To tell the Order that they can go screw themselves and take Naruto with him, away from this fucked up place.

Not yet, though.

Sasuke had no idea why Naruto was here or what he had been through in their years apart. There was a lot of catching up to do first and, while he hated to admit it, for the moment this was a relatively safe place, away from the Akuma.

Sasuke smirked, still, with Naruto around things were bound to get interesting around here. He couldn’t wait to see the other exorcists' reactions to him. Naruto was wearing a different mask though so maybe he has toned down how exasperating he was.

He scoffed to himself, straightening himself up, that was unlikely, Naruto was always exasperating.

His heart still pounded madly in his chest.

~~~~

Komui was a mad scientist as it turned out and repairing his damaged arm  _ hurt _ . Like, a lot. He was not doing that again. Maybe he could protect it by coating his arm in chakra? Naruto hadn’t really experimented with mixing the two together but he would probably have to start if he was getting into this war properly.

Meeting Hevlaska was also… a thing.

Naruto didn’t really know what she was but she had human emotions and while she did spook him he didn’t mind her too much. He did wonder how she was able to see though, her hair (tentacles?) seemed to cover them, if she had any at all. Maybe she had a sixth sense and used that? Like how he sensed chakra?

Kurama didn’t like her though. When she was searching for his syncro-rate, she entered his body in a way. Kurama does not like to share his host. He caused him a lot of problems when he was first learning Sage mode. It was only because of Kurama’s growling comfort that he didn’t activate his innocence against the intense branch of privacy. He trusted the fox to have his back if he needed it and Naruto couldn’t sense away ill intent from the woman. Still, entering someone's mind without permission was just bad manners and down right dangerous when done on a jinchuuriki. She was lucky Kurama was a lot more laid back than he used to be.

He also got a prophecy about ‘Destroying Time’ though so... 

Sigh. Wasn’t being the Child of Prophecy enough? Or was that why he got another one?

Actually, hasn’t he already destroyed his ‘time’ by reincarnating? And, by that logic, he’d done it centuries ago when he reincarnated as Hashirama? 

Eh, whatever…

If it was useful, someone would mention it again.

Komui explained about the message left behind by a cube, most of which Master touched upon, and then the commanders (who were sat way above the elevator, looking down) decided that it was his ‘duty’ to fight the Akuma because he processed innocence. Now, he was going to fight against them regardless but it wasn’t his ‘duty’. Naruto was capable of deciding what he wanted to do with his life without some old people doing it for him. Thank you.

Those guys pissed him off and they had only spoken one sentence to him…

Even worse, he didn’t get paid for any of this.

At least, when he was a ninja, they paid him for going on missions!

Maybe he should have listened to his master more...

~~~~

Naruto sighed as he fell to the floor of his new bedroom, watching as Kurama sniffed around the place. Said place was pretty dull, it needed some colour or maybe a nice rug and not whatever cheap crap he’s sitting on.

…

Wow, he’s becoming more and more like Master as time went on. 

What a scary thought.

Not that it mattered, Naruto wasn’t getting paid for risking his life and so couldn’t buy new things to liven the place up. Carefully, he unsealed his leather book and placed it on his desk. It was blood locked so no one but him would be able to open it. He’d write to Master in the morning and let him know he’s still alive. 

Honestly, that gruff attitude fooled no one.

“Hm,” he voiced, looking over at the painting above his single bed, it was of a creepy clown but somehow it reminded him of, “Mana…” placing his hand on the painting he carefully looked over it, “Come to think of it, where’d Timcanpy go…?”

‘Probably found something shiny that caught his eye.’ Kurama huffed in his mind and Naruto smirked at him.

“You should get along with him better.”

‘I’ll get along with him whe-’ Someone knocked on the door. Kurama sniffed the air and promptly curled up in a ball, ‘Urg, I’m going to sleep.’

Increasing his sensory range, Naruto grinned and nearly skipped up the door. He opened it just enough to pull the person into his room and slap a silence seal onto the wall, “Sasuke!” he shouted, grinning so widely it hurt his cheeks before grabbing him into a bear hug. His chakra curled tighter around Sasuke’s when he didn’t even give a token protest to the hug and returned it full force.

Naruto soon couldn’t hold in his curiosity though and raised his hand, tugging on a lock of dark blue hair, “...You’ve got long hair.”

Sasuke sighed, “Way to ruin the moment, dope.” he muttered, but he seemed to relax even more against him, before saying louder, almost leaning against him now, “Yes, I have. You’ve grown your hair too.” his hand reached up and tugged on his ribbon, freeing his shoulder length hair.

They pulled away but their chakra remained stubbornly mixed, neither commented on it though both knew it’d be a pain to separate, “A-ah, well, it’s not like I can just turn into a girl and have no one comment on it so…” it was something he did that reminded him of his female form. When he felt like a guy, he kept it up for the most part and when he felt like a girl, he kept it down. It had the added bonus of helping Master decide which he was, on a day he hadn’t had time to quietly ask. 

One of these days, he’d live in a nice cottage in a forest somewhere in the middle of nowhere and he could be who he wanted when he wanted.

“I don’t think the other exorcists would mind. We have a chef that identifies as a woman but was born a man and no one really says anything about it.” Naruto hmmed but didn’t say anything else. It was something he only felt comfortable revealing to people he trusted and he didn’t know any of these exorcists yet, “You look different than I thought you would.”

Naruto tried not to cringe. He was well aware of how strange his appearance was, especially since his old appearance was so full of colour. This one always seemed… washed out to him. He tried to shrug indifferently, “Well, it’s not like I’d be exactly the same. You look slightly different too. Your eye shape and colour is slightly different,” Naruto tilted his head, “Though your bone structure looks familiar enough.”

Sasuke smirked, smugly, “You, on the other hand, are still tiny.”

“Hey! Like I said before, teme, you’re just tall!” Naruto hid a smile, happy that his new looks didn’t bother his best friend all that much. It’ll probably take awhile to adjust their mental images of each other though. Still, it was unfair how easily Sasuke could pull off long hair and not look super girly with it. Master could do the same thing. Bastards, both of them, “So what have you been up to?”

Sasuke sighed, his smirk falling away, “It’s a long story.”

Naruto stared at him for a moment before grabbing his hand and pulling him onto his bed and settling down with him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the position but didn’t move away. In the war, they often shared sleeping space, usually with Sakura once Kakashi was… gone. It wasn’t anything unusual and to be honest, it had been something that Naruto had missed. There was innocent pleasure at waking up besides someone and feeling completely safe with them, “We’re going to need to catch up sooner or later and I’d prefer sooner.”

“Hn,” Sasuke leaned into his body and Naruto quietly ignored the soft inhale he made, breathing in his scent. They’d both get distracted if he brought it up. And emotional. Or more emotional. Scent, or rather chakra scent was often comforting for ninja, you couldn’t mimic it but it also completely disappeared once you died. Of course, that also meant it was intensely private and breathing someone’s scent deeply wasn’t done on a whim. Uchiha were even more dependent on scent too. Naruto remembered that Sasuke always used to try and breathe in his scent before and after a mission. It looked like that part of him hasn't changed, “If you say so.”

~~~~

Sasuke clung to Naruto, his nails were probably drawing blood at this point but Naruto said nothing about it. He had just finished telling him about Alma (the one with the nostalgic grin, the one who broke through what walls he was able to build and become his friend, the friend he had to kill). He didn’t know how Kakashi lived with this sort of guilt for years with no one to support him when he lost his balance. At least, Sasuke knew he had Naruto with him again and whether he wanted help or not, the dope would give it.

“...You’re not saying anything.” he whispered. Naruto hadn’t pulled away which was good but he didn’t know how he felt. He wasn’t an Uzumaki, he couldn’t sense things like he could. He needed words or actions.

“...I don’t know what  _ to _ say.” Naruto replied, but the arms curled around him tightened their hold and Sasuke felt himself relax into it, “There isn't much I can say to that. Well, apart from fucking Root and Orochimaru wannabes that always mess things up for people.”

Despite himself, Sasuke felt a weak laugh escape his throat, “Understatement, dope.”

He felt him shrug, “Eh, the sentiment is there.”

There was quiet silence, then, Sasuke reluctantly got out from the heavy, warm presence of the dope’s chakra, “What about you?” he wanted to think of something other than his life story.

“Hmm,” Naruto buried himself into his side, a mirror image of his own previous position. The idiot didn’t even think about refusing to tell him but that was how it was between them, a constant give and take, “When I was a baby, I was sold to the circus because of my arm…”

Sasuke had a feeling he  _ really  _ wouldn’t like this story.

~~~~

When Naru next woke up, it was to a warmth pressed to her back. She breathed in and smiled. Sasuke always smelled like freshly burnt matches and pine trees with ozone clinging to their leaves but there was something else added to his scent now. Hm, what was it...? Steel, maybe? Yes, that felt right but slightly off. Innocence had a scent but it was difficult to describe. It smelt like... steel coated innocence. That was it! Was it because he spent a lot of time with Mugen?

Sasuke’s arm was thrown over her waist and his nose was buried in her hair. She couldn’t move for fear of waking him up and truthfully, it had been awhile since she felt so relaxed. Alas, this bed was not made for two people to lay on comfortably and she was half falling off it.

With a shuffle, she attempted to escape with him unaware, “Settle down, dope.” Naruto blinked, well, there went that plan…

“I’m falling off the bed…” With a groan, Sasuke tightened his hold and turned them around so she was half pressed against the wall and his body instead, well, she wasn’t falling off the bed now. He was still crap at getting up in the morning, huh? You’d think for a clan kid, he’d be more used to waking up early, or did this life make him even softer in the area? 

Her stomach rumbled and Sasuke groaned again, almost whining, “Dope…”

“I can’t help it! I’m a parasitic type…” she paused for a moment, “Hey, do you think you’ll have ramen at the cafeteria?”

He sighed but apparently decided he wasn’t going to get any more sleep and sat up, releasing her. His hair must have come loose during the night and his clothes were all crumpled from sleeping in them. Naru didn’t doubt she looked much different from him. 

They were so tired last night that they just fell asleep where they were. 

Sasuke rubbed his eyes and yawned, hm, did he still have his sharingan? Naru forgot to ask. He still shared a lot of Uchiha features, so maybe?

Wait, more importantly, she slept in and now she won’t have time for her morning routine! 

Her stomach rumbled again and Sasuke huffed a laugh, Naru scowled at him and punched his arm in retaliation, “Teme, don’t laugh, this isn’t my fault!” 

“You sure you should be spending so arguing with me when your stomach is like that?”

~~~~

Jerry seemed a little bewildered when she ordered her food and Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her, as if asking ‘really?’. She ignored him (she had already said it was because of her type and chakra users in general ate a lot to support their energy output, he ate more than the average human too, just not as much as her) and reassured the cook that was indeed what she wanted. 

Jerry took one look at Sasuke and nodded, not even bothering to ask him what he wanted. Perhaps he ate a lot of the same thing? That wasn’t good, a good diet needed variety. Ero-sannin knocked that into her head along with the fact that her small stature due to malnutrition. Which she still had because she was a street kid this time as well… 

They had just sat down, Naru pushing along a cart which held her food, when a man (was that Reever?) called out, “Allen, Kanda! Finish your food in ten minutes, you’ve got a mission!” before running out to some other place, not bothering to wait for a reply.

“Already?” Naru asked, spearing a sausage with her fork as Kanda broke his chopsticks.

“It’s not like they are loads of Exorcists running around. Central is always shorthanded, dope.”

“If they are so few of us, why do they bother calling it a war?” It’s not like you can have a war with a handful of people against thousands. Well, not unless you know the Shadow Clone technique.

Sasuke shrugged, looking morbidly interested in her eating habits. She scowled at him and he coughed but didn’t bother to hide a smirk, “To raise moral? ...Ego?”

Naru snorted, “Ego?” she paused before shrugging, “Actually, from what I’ve heard about those in central from my master, probably.”


	9. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

Komui was sleeping by the time they made it his office, not that they were late. Naru looked at Sasuke but he just sighed and sat down, right, so this was a common thing. His office was covered in papers, and she meant covered. Sage, she thought the Kages’ had it bad but that was just insane. Did he just let it pile up like that? Naru followed Sasuke’s example as Lenalee handed out some coffee. Naru declined it, she didn’t really do bitter tasting things, not without copious amounts of cream and sugar.

Reever sighed, irritated before he walked up to the sleeping man and whispered, “Lenalee is marrying someone…”

Komui jerked up sharply, eyes wild, “Nooo, Lenalee, how could you marry someone without telling your own brother?!”

Lenalee smiled at her, an embarrassed shade of red covering her cheeks, as Reever explained to Naru's bewildered confusion, “It’s the only way to wake him up…” Wow, that was some brother complex the man had going for himself. She wondered what he'd do when Lenalee found someone that she liked (she was at that age, right?) or did the Order not allow those sort of relationships?

Wait, in Sasuke's past exorcist life, he had a lover, didn't he? That was sort of strange, though, imagining Sasuke with a lover, even if it wasn't really Sasuke. He had always seemed happy staying by her side in the war, he never paid attention to the girls that mooned over him. Yes, there was still fangirls in the war, though they could switch it off when needed and they were mild about it. Naru suspected it was a form of stress relief so she never did much about it though than making sure it didn't go too far. Though, thinking on it, there was precious little time to look into having a stable, healthy relationship in wartime, perhaps he'd like to try now (even if they were technically still in a war, Naru couldn't help but take it a little less seriously than she probably should. Ninja had made war into an art form over the years, these people seemed to be taking all the wrong steps at all the wrong times. Honestly, making your strongest people constantly wear massive targets across their chests. When could they properly rest their bodies and minds without being paranoid of an attack?)... Huh, she... didn't really like the thought of Sasuke being without someone else... Her chest tightened in such a strange way. Maybe she was getting sick? Was that even possible with Kurama being a second living immune system?

And wasn't she thinking about Komui and _not_ Sasuke?

Komui coughed once he realised that it was just a joke and he didn't need to get his drill not to experime- _talk_ to whoever dared to get close to his dear, sweet, innocence sister. He breathed in and out before calming down, “Err, sorry about that, I didn’t go to sleep before daybreak so-”

“Either did I.” interrupted Reever.

“All right,” Komui started, standing up, probably intending to ignore that comment, “We don’t have much time, so after you hear the summary, move out. If you want more detailed info, read this on your way there.” the scientist passed her and Sasuke two identical folders.

“Ah, wait, does that mean…?”

“Yep, you’re going as partners! Lenalee said Kanda was weirdly nice to you yesterday so you should be fine, Allen.” Naru cringed at the male name but nodded as Sasuke huffed, his chakra happily dancing away in direct opposition to his expression. Who knew Sasuke could be cute like that? “We’ve found innocence in southern Italy, but it may have been taken by an Akuma. Your job is to destroy the enemy and collect the innocence.”

~~~~

It was a level two Akuma. Her cursed eye burned like at normally did when it activated and she saw the twisted, tortured soul of the Akuma. Said Akuma looked strangely like a clown. That was ironic. The first Akuma she fought as an official exorcist was a clown. She didn't know how she felt about that. She did not have good memories about that circus but it was where she had met Mana. Naru narrowed her eyes, making sure the Akuma’s attention was on her as Sasuke got to the dolls (one of which was supposed to have innocence, though one also had chakra and so was probably a human).

What was annoying though, was the Akuma’s mimicking ability. 

Kurama growled from her neck and promptly bit into the Akuma shaped like herself when it skewered her. It howled in pain, a chunk of it’s neck missing as it withdrew in pain. Naru wheezed, clutching her wounded side, okay, so no letting down her guard. Got it. She jumped out of the way of the spear-like things it changed her mimicked arm and hand to be, hitting it back.

She probably put too much strength into it though, because it flew through some walls and disappeared into some dust…

Hm… she'd need to work on her 'I'm-just-a-normal-strength-level-exorcist' act. How did one lower their strength to a chuunin level, anyway? She was a jinchuraiki, damn it, power levels were weird to her.

Actually, now that she's looking around where had Timcampy gone?

Eh, he’ll turn up. She needs to find Sasuke first.

~~~~

“Why the hell are you protecting the Akuma, dope?!” 

Naru smiled, dropping her arm from the copy of herself, “I can ‘see’ Akuma, remember, teme? And this guy isn’t an Akuma.” Tearing at the gap in ‘her’ face, Naru revealed an unconscious Toma, the finder who came with them, “You really need to learn how to sense chakra better.” Timcanpy nestled back into her hair, having shown her the way. She needed to keep a better eye on the golden golem. Maybe she could make a Seal?

“Tch,” without hesitation, Sasuke turned around to strike at the other Toma but it was too late and he got a pierced stomach for his troubles. Her world paused for a moment and then she blinked. Sasuke's red blood seemed to cover her vision.

“Sasuke!”

“Don’t move, exorcist.” Naru stilled, aborting her motions, glaring at the clown-like Akuma.

“You bastard, how did you…?” Sasuke was hanging limply by his neck, the Akuma's hand wrapped around him.

No, she had just found him-

Sasuke wasn’t going to die like this, not now, not ever-

She wouldn’t let that happen!

“When you were talking to the one you call ‘Toma’ and I crushed the yellow golem. I made him wear that boy’s skin, I’m pretty clever, right~ My skin is duplicating paper. I got you goo-”

Growling, Naru sprung at the Akuma with red slitted eyes, too fast for it to do anything, engrossed in its own monologue as it was, “Don’t you dare touch him!” baring her teeth, Naru flung the Akuma away. Kurama having already disappeared inside her. 

Sasuke looked up at her, eyes dazed, “Heh... it’s been awhile since… I’ve seen those eyes on you…” and promptly went unconscious, having loss more blood than she first thought.

“Sasuke!” Naru pressed her lips together and looked around. The Akuma was unconscious and the same could be said for the finder. She sighed and let the red fade from her eyes. It… had been awhile since she had done that, she hadn’t done it in this lifetime… She didn’t know how this body would react to the shock of it. Would her body even react? Her old one didn’t, not to that small level of intensity. Still, Naru didn’t know for sure.

She had to get someplace safe.

Well then, it looked like she was carrying the both of them.

She was not going to let Sasuke live this down.

~~~~

A song…?

Naru strained her ears. Someone was singing.

Well, it's not like she had a better direction to follow.

~~~~

“Are you crying, Lala…?”

“That’s a strange question to ask, Guzoru.” Two voices… They were getting closer. She could hear them clearly now, “Why did you lie about being a doll?”

“I am a very… ugly human. I didn’t want you to be broken by strangers. Lala… stay by my side and when I die, let my hand be the one that breaks you…” Ah, she understood now or, at least, she did a little.

“Yes, Guzoru, Lala is Guzoru’s doll.” It’s probably time to reveal herself, carrying two people wasn’t exactly easy, “What shall I sing next…?”

They startled as soon as she revealed herself, “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but you are the doll, aren’t you?” Naru asked, looked at the small girl wrapped in rags. She slowly looked up as the doll grabbed a stone pillar and threw it. She picked it up, a whole pillar, and threw it… Since when were people that strong in this world/era? Though, she’s a doll so… Either way-

Baa-chan flashbacks…

…

And Sakura-chan flashbacks...

Thinking quickly, she dropped Sasuke and Toma, wincing mentally at the bruises she just gave them, before grabbing the stone from out of the air and throwing it back, knocking all the over pillars away, “There, now you can’t throw anything.” she smiled, gently, “Now please tell me what’s going on?”

The doll trembled slightly, biting her lip in an action that seemed so human it was hard to think of her as something different, “Guzoru’s going to die soon! Until then, please don’t separate me from him! I’ll give you my heart-!”

“Okay.”

Guzoru and Lala stopped for a moment, “...What?”

“Well, if I’m going to get the innocence after all, then I don’t see much harm in letting you stay together till the end.” 

Besides, she really needed to treat Sasuke’s and Toma’s wounds and she just didn’t have the heart to separate them. Even her and Sasuke managed to die together. their blood mingling together as ash and smoke clog up their lungs.

~~~~

“Heh,” Sasuke coughed up blood and quickly wiped his month, “Still a crybaby, dope…” he said, seeing the two very alive, maybe innocence holders sitting beside each other and telling a _story_ , of all things, to the blond- ah, white-haired idiot. He didn't really know what else he expected to be honest. Sasuke remembered all those C-rank missions (that really wasn't C-rank missions, Sage, what was up with Konoha's mission research department? Every C-rank they had turned into a fucking A or S-rank) and ended with Naru turning an enemy into an ally because she sat down and _talked_ with them. After making them eat dirt most of the time. 

What was _wrong_ with people?

And, no, his situation was completely different, thank you.

“Ah,” Naru turned to him, silver eyes that were once blue lighting up. Sasuke sort of missed her blue eyes. Though, sometimes, he thought he could blue in her eyes at a certain angle, “You’re awake!” Then she started fretting, form hovering above him, hands not quite touching his body. He wondered what made him so hyper aware of the small distance between them, “Are you okay? Do you need something?”

“Tch, quiet down.” He rested back down into the cloth under his head, it smelt like Naru. Like the wind and the sea bathed in the midday sun in summer. A gentle breeze and the sea, deadly calm with hidden depths. It was an oddly calming scent, for all that her personality could be exasperating. Then, there was the addicting power behind all that. Hidden slightly in the depths of her sea, but not well enough when he knew how to look for it. It felt like a lion stalking a deer, hidden behind tall grass, eyes sharp and focused. Maybe a fox was a more apt description though, given her circumstances. A fox stalking a... rabbit, maybe? Seriously though, her chakra scent was just weird. He couldn’t describe it without sounding like he was waxing poetics about it so he never really described it, even when she asked. He was not putting himself through that. Sage, that'd be _embarrassing_. Why was her scent coming from the cloth though? Was it her coat…? Idiot shouldn’t be using it for something like this. It gave surprisingly good protection. She should be wearing it, “I can’t die so easily with that Seal on me. Stop fretting, dope.”

Naru’s eyes flashed, “...Seal?” there was something dangerous on the edge of her voice. Ah, he… might have forgotten to mention that… He blamed her scent. It made his mind blissfully fuzzy. Maybe it was his Uchiha mentality, but scent always had a strong effect on him. It’s why he never allowed people in his person space, unless he knew them very well. 

Back when he was a ninja, it wasn’t a problem. Scent always had an effect on them, big or small, and everyone respected that line. Here? No one even knew that line even existed and needed to be respected for people’s sanity. He didn’t want to breathe in someone’s scent and have his instincts go all protective on them when he didn’t even know them. Especially, in this organisation, where people’s life expectancy was that of a mayfly’s. 

If exorcists where so important to you, train them better. Keep them out of the field until they could hold their own (or wasn’t a child, because that had happened way too often for his liking) or, at the very least, don’t send them on sucide missions where you know they won’t come back from.

Quality, not quantity.

Seriously, that was just basic stuff.

“Allen-sama, is Kanda-sama alright?” A voice asked, breaking into his thoughts, that’s the finder’s voice, right? What was his name…? Toka? No, Soka? No, that's wasn't right either. Toma, maybe? Whatever, it didn't matter. Sasuke saw Allen flinch minutely and decided he’d have to convince her to open up about her gender identity to the others in the organisation, sooner rather than later. It really wouldn’t do having to hate other exorcists because they were blind idiots that couldn’t see when something was bothering Naru. Or Ellen, as she didn’t mind being called that either, when she was female.

“Ah, he’s fine but if you could stay with hi-” Naru cut herself off, tilting her head as her cursed eye activated just as a claw that crashed through the wall and into the human and doll.

~~~~

Naru watched as Guzozu reached for Lala, “La-lala…”

“Oh, so this is innocence~” the Akuma exclaimed over the two. 

Lala fell, like a puppet without strings, clattering on the floor as the sound echoed over Guzozu's begging pleas. Her face looked more doll-like now. There was no light in her eyes and her skin seemed more rigid, like wood. Guzozu reached almost blindly anyway, repeating her name like a mantra. And suddenly, it wasn’t Guzozu and Lala she saw on the ground but them.

She still remembered how the ground felt on that day. The day her and Sasuke died. She remembered the fond smile on his face. The blood that ran from his worn, aching eyes. Naru remembered the smoke and ash clogging up her lungs and making her eyes water. The blood under her fingernails. The scent of burning flesh in the air. Sage, she wanted so much, but then she died. She lost what little she gained and now she had to start all over again in a world that she hardly understood.

Guzozu was dying alone. Lala was already dead.

Kakashi-sensei died alone. In the rain, with the cold corpses of his pack surrounding him, having long died before him. They tried to protect their Alpha until the very end.

Baa-chan died alone too.

Just like Ero-sennin.

Just like Sakura-chan.

Just like Shino-

“Return it.” She felt Kurama’s chakra reacting to her emotions, she had just enough rational thought to remember that Toma was now awake and pushed it back. “Return that innocence.” Her left arm was… shifting, twisting. 

It hurt.

Hurt so much, like fire ants eating their way up her arm. Gluttonous.

It hurt.

She didn’t care.

The pain sharpened her awareness in a way she knew wasn't healthy.

Sasuke would scold her.

She promised not to use her pain like that again.

It still hurt as her vision narrowed.

“ _Return it_.”

~~~~

“Human-sama… How about a song? I am a doll, I sing.”

~~~~

_“Tearful was that day,_

_From which the ashes will rise,_

_The guilty man is condemned,_

_So have mercy on him Lord,_

_Have mercy on him Lord Jesus,_

_The guilty man is condemned,_

_So have mercy on him Lord,_

_Have mercy on him Lord Jesus~”_

~~~~

“You never change, do you?” Naru looked up, tears streaming down her face, she hadn’t made a sound. Sasuke sighed (as if annoyed, despite his utterly fond voice) and ran his thumb under her eyelid, clearing away the liquid, “See what I mean? Always with the bleeding heart.”

Naru smiled, it was a sad attempt but Sasuke let it pass. She hardly ever let herself cry, “T-that song... it reminds of that battlefield… I wonder why.”

“Hn, how should I know what’s going on inside your idiot head?” she didn’t respond, “I got a message from Komui, I’m going ahead to my next mission. You’re to deliver the innocence back to Headquarters.”

“When you get back, I want to look at your Seal.” Of course, she didn’t let that pass her by. The dope should worry about herself more.

“Get some food first, it’s been three days.” he huffed.

He got up but her hand lashed out to grab at his sleeve, “Promise meh.”

Sasuke sighed but his lips twitched up into a small sincere smile all the same, “I promise-”

Naru’s head shot up, cutting him off, looking towards the ruined building, her hand fell.

The singing had stopped.


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I hadn't posted for about a month but with everything going on I had some stuff to sort out. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you're all doing well and staying safe! Its going to be a pretty hard time for all of us (an understatement, I know) but I think the best thing we can all do is just stay positive and mindful of other people, you know? Especially, the NHS, because they are doing an incredible job! And so are all the people who are risking themselves stacking selves and delivering food. I'm sure all of you have heard something pretty similar from lots of people so I'll stop there, but seriously guys, stay strong!
> 
> With the said, please enjoy the chapter!

**Chapter Ten**

“Allen!” 

Naruto looked up from his food and quickly swallowed, “Ah, Lenalee, good morning! Can I do something for you?”

“Ah, no, it’s just- Can I sit with you?”

Naruto resisted the urge to frown and nodded, “Of course, please do!” He wondered what could be bothering the girl. Had he done something? He didn’t think he had. Either way, he didn’t mind her company. Considering she had grown up in the Black Order, she was sweet-natured and always happy to help instead of being blank-faced. She was a more adjusted to life in general than what he feared she might be from what he had heard of her childhood from Sasuke. He had imagined something like a female Sai version two but being around people, most of them nice, seemed to balance out the disaster that could be her life.

Sasuke liked her and she reminded him faintly of Hinata, if a little more traumatised than she was at her age. Not that Hinata didn’t have her fair share of a crappy childhood but their society didn’t really have things like child rights (the only thing stopping people were their own morals and the sensibilities of civilians. All ninja started off as child soldiers, technically) and Hinata was grown to be mentally tougher, Clan kid that she was. The Byakuga processed a lot of information at any one time and that necessitated needing to handle more mentally.

His heart ached, flashes of Hinata’s eyeless sockets burning his eyes before he swallowed the bile at the back of his throat and concentrated on Lenalee instead of ghosts.

He was in a pretty good mood today and he was determined to stay in it.

His hair was finally long enough to put in a braid, up or down depending on his gender that day. Metal and red ribbon glinting in between the braided locks. He hadn’t bothered to grow it out when training with Master. He wasn’t used to it and he wanted to concentrate getting back in shape before adding more to his plate like getting used to distracting sensations. 

Still, maybe he should have done it earlier. Something settled in him when he saw himself in the mirror, carrying with him a bit of home.

“Thanks.” with a smile, Lenalee placed her tray down and sat down opposite him. He glanced at her normal sized portion of food with a little bit of envy. Sometimes, he missed being able to have a ‘quick’ meal. Sure, even before, he was a big eater but he could skip a meal and not worry about the consequences too much. Now if he skipped a meal and tried to use his innocence he wouldn’t have enough energy to power it and it would use his life force instead. 

It was a troublesome thing. 

He wondered if the Akimichi had the same problem though it was probable. He remembered how horribly thin Choji looked at the end of that failed retrieval mission. He remembered the carefully hidden terrified look Shikamaru’s eyes held when he looked at his hospitalised friend.

“Again, sorry about last night.” Lenalee repeated like she hadn’t already said it thousands of times after thoroughly scolding her brother or guilt tripping him. It could have been both. She had mastered that technique with terrifying efficiency. Baa-chan would have like her, so would Kurenai, Hinata and Sakura. If Lenalee had been born in another time (or world, but he was leaning towards time. His gut told him that it was more likely to be in that direction), she could have made a good Kunoichi. She had that hint of steel in her eyes.

Or maybe not... Lenalee's personality seemed much too kind to be able to stomach killing someone. 

Remembering that out of control robot (and Kurama’s mocking after letting himself get captured by it) wasn’t something he wanted to be reminded of and so shook his head quickly, “No, please, don’t worry about it. It’s fine, really. I’m just glad you weren’t hurt in the end.” Lenalee was a pretty good fighter, it turned out, even if it was risky, only using your legs in a fight.

Lenalee laughed and nodded as Kurama continued to devour the slab of meat he had gotten him. Kurama didn’t really need to eat but he got grumpy if Naruto ‘neglected’ him for too long and so Naruto just made it a point of order him something when he was going to eat.

“By the way, what is with the fox? Is he a pet?”

“Oh, Kurama, you mean?” Naruto smiled, as said fox bristled, “Well, he just follows me around. I wouldn’t call him a pet though. He’s way too proud for that.”

“I heard that in your report, he didn’t even run away from the Akuma.”

“Like I said; he’s proud.”

Lenalee's smile gained an unsure edge, “I think that sort of fearlessness goes beyond normal pride though...”

Naruto just laughed and danced around the questions.

Better not tell the religious organisation that they were housing a demon (or one that was close enough to be called one and didn't really mind) under their roof.

He had a feeling that wouldn't go over well.

~~~~

“Right then, top off.”

Sasuke stilled and then smirked, “Feeling forward today, dope?”

“That’s… that’s not what I mean and you know it, teme!” Naruto blushed, turning away, stupid Uchiha, “I just want to see this Seal you’ve got on you.” Sasuke looked like he wanted to say something else, the teme always had to have the last laugh but something flashed in his eyes and his mouth remained stubbornly closed, his lips drew into a straight thin line. All previous hints of dry humour wiped from his face.

Naruto wished he wasn’t familiar enough with the change that he barely blinked at the appearance of it, he was though. War did things to people. Changed them in ways that no one could really predict. Sasuke, for all his darkness even before the war and Uchiha mentality, was no different.

Neither was he, really, despite his masks.

Naruto didn’t even know how he himself had changed, only that he had in some irreversible way. He knew it, could feel it in his bones and in the way that Sasuke would look at him with that sad, weary look in his eye when he did something that he wouldn’t have done before. Naruto didn’t hold it against him, he was probably giving him that same look right now. 

They were all missing bits of themselves.

Sasuke unbuttoned his coat (what was it in this organisation with those clothes? Sure, they were pretty comfortable but annoying to get out of if you were in a hurry. What happened when you have a wound you need to get to and you don’t want to tear through the fabric because you’ll need to wear them into another fight?) and took off his vest with it, revealing a symbol inked onto his skin.

Naruto frowned intently, instantly going into his Seal Master mode. This Seal was not a Seal. Or, it was, but not a fuinjutsu Seal. it was one of those symbols that belonged to the art his master used sparingly. The branch of Seals and symbols that looked more and more like an offshoot of fuinjutsu whenever he had the opportunity to study it.

Which wasn't much. Master didn’t mind showing it, but only in small amounts. Irritating but he could deal with it. It had looked backwards to him and it wasn’t like his own Seals (better as they were) couldn’t do the same thing with a little thought and time and with probably a lot more efficiency.

He kind of wished he swallowed his pride a little bit and glanced over them a little so he could have some more foreknowledge, but Naruto could still work with this. He was an Uzumaki, after all. Seals, even weird foreign Seals like that, were in his blood.

_(Seals inked in blood, flowing through their veins like liquid gold, as valuable to them as oxygen. Seals were knowledge, a soothing whisper at the back of their head, and an Uzumaki was never without their Seals)_

Naruto squinted at it, tilting his head, as if to get a better angle, “Lay down.” Sasuke blinked but followed the order, well used to him in this state. He quickly followed him, not even really aware that he was saddling his waist as he coated his fingers in just the right ratio of chakra.

The ink of the symbol (it was called a… Khanda in some other culture, right? Oh, so that’s where Sasuke’s new last name from) seemed to expand out, revealing other similarly foreign symbols and lines that formed something like a sentence. Naruto gritted his teeth, he would need to learn this new language, but for now his master’s teachings and his blood’s instincts were enough to get a basic (and a little more than that if he was being honest) idea of what it was doing.

(Though even Naruto could tell that some symbols were repeating themselves when they had _no need_ to. It was like watching a bird fly in a circle when all it needed to do was turn around. All of this was needlessly complicated for no real reason. And using more energy than it needed to. Was this supposed to be confusing or, Sage forbid, _clever_? This was really offending his Uzumaki clan sensibilities. Like, seriously. 

Urg, it was like watching a genin stand up to a Kage with no real understanding of the huge, gaping chasm between them. 

Naruto didn’t even know you could be pretentious through Seals before this!)

Still, Naruto didn’t want to directly tamper with the Seal until he had a complete understanding of everything it could do. He wasn’t that reckless, thank you. That could end with bits of Sasuke flying everywhere. Seals had an unfortunate habit of exploding when they didn’t like things.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t indirectly affect it though.

“Naruto?” he blinked his suddenly dry eyes (he tended to forget about things like blinking when he was in that mode) and looked up to Sasuke. His eyes held a fragile kind of hope, flickering weakly against the wind threatening to put it out, “Can you do anything?”

Naruto was the wind though and his wind did nothing but encourage Sasuke’s flames to grow and become as dangerous as they could so he grinned, “I ain’t called Uzumaki Naruto for ‘othing, ya know!” his eyes flickered down to the symbols marking his soul-brother’s chest, barely noticing his accent slip in his blatant interest in the symbols, even if they were half arsed like this. Naruto would just have to get his master to teach them to him. Say what you want about Cross but when he commits himself to something, to learn something or teach or anything else, he never does anything halfheartedly. It’s all about motivation, really. He always got the unmotivated teachers, didn't he? “Still, this language is a 'ittle unfamiliar ta meh, so I’ll ‘ave ta put one of meh own Seals on ya ta indirectly affect it, incase it blows up on ya.”

Sasuke huffed, frame relaxing more fully against the bed and tension easing from his shoulders, “You can’t get rid of it fully?”

“Not yet.” Naruto grinned ferally, teeth seemingly sharper than normal even without Kurama’s chakra, a silent promise in between those fangs. It should probably worry him that Sasuke, instead of becoming unnerved by the sight, relaxes even more. It doesn’t worry him though, because since when were ninja ever called sane and Uchiha were called insane even by said ninja when the clan was alive and well for a reason. It does spread warmth through his body though.

(Then again, all clans were insane in their own way. Bloodlines did not only affect them physically but mentally as well. Naruto wasn't an exception to that rule either. He was an Uzumaki and he had a bloodline, it just wasn't as flashy as the Uchiha or the Hyuga.

Dojutsu users seemed to have a flair for the dramatic. And, yes, that included Hinata, the sweet thing that she was, because the Twin Lion Fist was flashier than his Rasengan and no one could convince him otherwise.

Wait… was his cursed eye technically a dojutsu…?)

Hm, now, where to start? Well, that whole healing in exchange for his lifespan deal had got to go so that’s was good a place as any, he supposed, returning his eyes back to Sasuke’s chest and unSealing his brush and ink. 

He'd keep the healing ability (because it was useful and it would raise questions if Sasuke started healing at the normal rate) but maybe he'd link it directly to his chakra. Something similar to Sakura and Baa-chan's seal, maybe? Though definitely, less potent because they didn't have three years to charge it.

~~~~

_\- Master, teach me about those weird symbols of yours._

_\- Sorcery, brat, it’s called Sorcery, I’ve told you this._

_\- … I am not calling it magic, that’s stupid. Just because it affects something else in a way that can’t be seen with our eyes does not make it magic! I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff, Master, and none of those people called it magic!_

_\- …_

_\- …_

_\- You done?_

_\- Yes._

_\- ...Why do you even want to learn them? You were content knowing the basics. Though what you consider the basics is a little different than most others, idiot apprentice._

_\- …_

_\- Well, brat?_

_\- Old friend of mine has one of those symbols on his chest. It’s doing some pretty crappy stuff to him. I’ve managed to negate most of it with an actual Seal but I do want to get rid of it. By the way, those other people who can do those weird symbols of yours are crap at them. Like, they’re really bad. I could have done a better job at it with only my limited knowledge about the whole thing._

_\- Welcome to the shitty Black Order, brat. I’ve been telling you that from the beginning. Just be happy you hadn’t run into any of the major arseholes yet._

_\- ...I know… So, will you help me?_

_\- …_

_\- Please? I’ll teach you that Blood Clone Seal you wanted to learn._

_\- Urg, fine! But you owe me one, idiot apprentice!_

Naruto smiled victoriously at as notebook. Master was such a lazy arse but at least he was susceptible to bribery (not that he didn't know what he was doing, but his master had yet to show any shame about it).

~~~~

He was on another mission. With Lenalee this time, which was interesting because being mission partners with someone was always a good way to get to know someone... Or find out how completely you hate someone, some people you just did not want to spend anymore time with than needed. He once ran a mission with a Hyuga branch member and an Inuzuka...Naruto had been stuck in the middle of those two having a pissing contest through the entire mission. He was pretty sure it was because he stole Baa-chan's sake that one time. Thankfully, Lenalee was easy to get along with.

The mission itself was pretty interesting itself too.

Well, the whole needing to get a civilian job thing and the flashbacks he had of the circus, not so much, but the rewinding time thing was pretty good and he stubbornly thought about _only_ that rather than the circus. The amount of ideas it has given him for Seals was unreal. He couldn’t wait to test them out.

...And the resulting explosions that would follow… 

Maybe he should hold back on that until he had fully sealed his room off.

Or was on a solo mission, either way works.

He’d have to think on that later though because his arm was nailed to this Sage’s forsaken wall and it hurt. Like, really bad. Where was he? “A-allen?” Shaking his dazed head, he looked over to Miranda. She looked terrified. And why wouldn’t she? She was nailed to her clock by her hands which was more than a little archaic. Rope worked just as well if you knew the proper ties to make. Not to mention, easier to clean up after. Sage, she was a civilian hostage at this point, except was there much point of taking hostages in this war? The Akuma just seemed to want to indiscriminately kill things.

He smiled at her, gentle and kind, hoping to soothe her however little he could, being nailed to the wall like he was.

“Mistress Rhode, why are you making her look pretty?”

“Weapons like you guys wouldn’t understand. An exorcist doll is a rarity.” ‘Mistress Rhode’ happened to be a gothic looking child, who also happened to be wearing his coat. Or, well, she looked like a child, because her chakra was… twisted, dark. And old. It was difficult to piece together and the pain shooting through his arm wasn’t really helping.

He was not looking forward to Komui fixing it...

Rhode was standing over Lenalee, who was, strangely enough, dressed up like a doll… Rhode was going to be one of the strange ones, wasn’t she? Lenalee looked… dazed, like she wasn’t all there and that worried him. She had become something of a friend to Naruto in the little time he had to bond with her and he knew Sasuke was close to her as well, “Let Lenalee go.” there was a small, barely noticeable growl to his voice and he wondered where Kurama was as Rhode started muttering to Lenalee, apparently perfectly alright with ignoring him for now.

Keeping half of his attention on Lenalee, he looked around and felt his eyes widen. There, nailed to the ground by his single tail and paws, was Kurama, blood seeping from the wounds. He was growling and glaring at Rhode. “Kurama!” he called, gaining attention.

“Oh?” Rhode moved from Lenalee, looking at him, “That fox is yours? He tried to bite me so I had to punish him. He wasn’t cute at all.”

Naruto glared at the girl, he was worried about Kurama but his body at the moment was similar to that of a clone. He could feel things in it but once the clone was released none of the wounds transferred to his actual body, “You came to buy a ticket earlier! Why are you with the Akuma?!” He couldn’t see the soul of an Akuma, his eye wasn’t activated but she didn’t feel like a human, not a normal human at the very least, “What are you…?”

Rhode smirked, “I’m a human. What’s with that face? Can’t humans be friends with Akuma?”

“Akuma are weapons made by the Earl. They target humans.”

Rhode’s skin colour started to change into a dark grey, “Weapons can be made by humans to kill other humans, right?” 

Naruto felt his eyes widen, of course he knew that. He came from a world/time that knew nothing but different ways to kill humans and for all their admittedly strange abilities, they were human. He knew that and never thought otherwise. It’s just that, well, Naruto didn’t really think about the possibility of the Earl being human. Which he should have done but this world was so… soft when it came to humans. They seemed too easy to break and wound here. Their bodies were made of silk instead of steel.

(Plus the Earl appearance, while humanoid in shape, had really weird proportions)

If the Earl was human, was he using human techniques to raise the dead? He… he wasn't using an altered revision of the Edo Tensei technique, was he? Because now that he thought about it, there were some startling similarities between whatever the Earl was doing and that forbidden technique.

Very startling similarities…

That was… more than mildly unnerving. He would need to look into that.

“The Millennium Earl is my brother. We are the chosen ones.” The girl spoke, breaking his disturbing line of thought. Black crosses lined her forehead, appearing from her now fully darkened skin, “You exorcists don’t know anything, do you? You are the chosen ones of a false god.”

Now, Naruto was aware of the seriousness of the situation (was he going to be fighting a war against his old comrades bodies once more? No, no, if that was possible here, it would have already happened… Right? Please, he couldn’t do that again...) but he’d like it to be known that he missed the simple reasons ninja had to kill each other. Money, village, resources, morals, they were all easy to guess and they accepted that people clashed for said reasons, however much he personally hated it. 

Of course, some were just insane (fucking Hidan) but they were more the outlier than the rule and they didn’t start wars over God. Hidan had a God, or something, he vaguely remembered, but Hidan did whatever he wanted when he was alive/not buried under ten feet of soil in the Nara forest and he didn’t start a sage forsaken war about it. Generally, ninja didn’t care about a god no one could see, most were too busy trying to survive. Sure, some believed in them, they did have religions in the elemental nations as most did believe that the Pure Land was where you would go when you died, but they didn’t use them as a weird way to start a war. It was easier to quarrel over resources or something than finding a God to fight over.

“We are the true apostles chosen by God. The Noah Clan.”

...This was just a giant pissing contest, wasn’t it?

Also, Clan Bullshit made an appearance. Of. Fucking. Course.

He should have just listened to his Master… The man, admittedly, knew what he was talking about, apparently. Maybe he should apologise the next time he saw him and give him some credit.

The umbrella, that could apparently talk, was berating the Noah girl but Naruto didn’t really give a crap about that because he had just discovered that this entire fucking war was started over a pointless fucking reason! Most wars were started over something pointless, sure, but they lasted half a decade, at the most, which was still too fucking long but- This, this has been going on for centuries!

With a snarl, he channelled Kurama’s chakra through his body, healing his wounds as the fox grinned a feral smile and promptly burst into smoke, entering his body. Ripping his Innocence arm that was nailed down from the wall hurt, but he did it anyway. Sasuke was going to chew him out for this but Naruto-

He needed to blow off some steam. _Right now_.


End file.
